Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/75958/to-live-is-christ-to-die-is-gain/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] All right, good morning, everybody. Just a few more announcements. So, let's see here. [0:11] ! Okay, the blessings in the bottle.! So, last week was Father's Day. That's the day we usually collect those bottles. But sometimes we don't get to it. [0:22] I know we've missed that. Sometimes we're a few weeks late. But feel free to drop those off just in the office if you have a bottle. From the blessings in the bottle. [0:33] For the PRC, by the way, for those of you who may not know what we're talking about. For the Pregnancy Resource Center here in town. Also, just another thing. It's not on the calendar yet. We've been trying to figure out what exactly we're going to do. [0:45] But we had planned to do a VBS program this summer. Right after the July 4th holiday. Those plans have kind of changed somewhat. We still have the Turner family coming into town. [0:56] They came and helped us last year with VBS. But we're going to do kind of a smaller, just a couple of meetings. We're looking at Monday and Tuesday night. [1:07] And that's July 7th and 8th if I'm getting my dates right. And so, the plan is to have on a Monday night some kind of event for families. [1:18] Family discipleship and encouragement to families. Maybe even a little workshop type thing. So, if you're in the midst of raising a family right now, consider marking that off on your calendar on July 7th. [1:31] That's a Monday night. And then, on that Tuesday, we're looking at, we're not sure quite yet, maybe doing a, like a praise and worship night or something like that. [1:43] So, just keep an eye out that. We'll send out an email once we get those plans finalized. Let's see. Anything else? Yeah, continue to pray for, not just our country, but the whole situation in the Middle East. [1:56] It is a powder keg, to say the least. And a lot going on there. A lot's been going on there for a long time. And, you know, there are, you know, believers all over the Middle East, even in Iran, there are Christians, Christian people. [2:12] But then also, unbelievers who need to know the Lord throughout the Middle East. And, you know, we want to see, we want to see peace. [2:23] We want to see safety. We also want to see, as we talked about last week, people coming to Christ and Christ preached all over that part of the world. Let's see. [2:37] Should I do this now? Let's do this now. I'm going to pitch a book. I've been, we've kind of got our library organized with lots of books. And I want to make sure that you're aware of what we got out there. This is one, actually included this ministry in the last email that we sent out a few days ago. [2:53] I think it was actually yesterday. It got out late. But this is a book by a guy named Gregory Kokel. He is a, he's had a radio show for years and years out in California called Stand to Reason. [3:05] It's a great program. He helps people to think logically, think reasonably about the Christian faith and then help Christians to defend their faith or defend the faith. [3:18] This is a book called Tactics. And it's really about how a Christian can skillfully and winsomely, that's a word he likes to use a lot, share their faith with others. [3:33] A lot of us feel somewhat inadequate in talking to people about the Lord. And what happens if somebody, if I talk to them and they ask me a question and I don't know how to answer it? [3:49] You know? And so what do you do? And he gives in this book a game plan for how to approach things, even when it comes to questions that you don't know at the time anyway how to answer. [4:01] And so a great book. This is available in our library. By the way, if you want to check out a library book, just go into the library, find something that looks interesting. And there's a little sign out sheet. Just put your name on there. I think the date and that's it. [4:13] And then just bring it back when you're done. There's a little basket, I think. You just throw it in there. And that's the way most libraries work, right? Something like that. We don't have the fancy checkout systems with scanners or anything like that. [4:25] We try to keep it simple. So, but anything else that we should share abroad before we take a little break here and greet each other? Anything else I'm missing? [4:39] Okay, small groups. Thanks. Yeah. So, this is what our third meeting. Is there one tonight? It's a small group tonight here at the church at 5 o'clock. [4:49] Is that the new time? And then this coming Wednesday at the Baumgartner's house. That one's at 7. And then we've got the one that just, it's still meeting weekly from what I understand, right? [5:03] The former prayer group. I'm getting nods here. And that's no longer in the evenings. It's now at noon here at the church. And so, be sure to try to avail yourselves of one of those. [5:16] We're trying to put together some kind of communication system. Just some kind of reminder system or something like that. We'll see if we can figure something like that out. With all the things going on, we want to try to make sure people are aware and remember what's going on. [5:31] Anything else? Okay, everybody stand up and say hi to your neighbor. And we'll get started here in just a minute or two. And the kids can be dismissed to the children's class. [5:45] Thank you, boys. Thank you. [6:16] Thank you. [6:46] Thank you. [7:16] Thank you. [7:46] Thank you. [8:16] Thank you. [8:46] Thank you. [9:16] Thank you. [9:46] Thank you. [10:16] Thank you. [10:46] Thank you. [11:16] Thank you. [11:46] Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Gloria. Happy birthday to you. [11:56] We love you, Gloria. Happy birthday. By the way, if it is your birthday this month, we've got the birthday, or the books for birthday giveaways, I guess. [12:10] It's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it's in the book, it or not and some of it you know it comes from different perspectives from you know just it what do you call it when you when you don't think our country should be involved in any kind of war isolation is more of like an isolation perspective and then you but then you have really like religious things involved I've seen actually a lot of anger against dispensationalism like that word isn't one you usually find out in the culture but it's been coming up a lot because dispensationalists see a future for Israel and some people don't really like that because they're very suspicious of Israel I think that that's highly unwarranted and then some people are just saying hey Israel doesn't have the right to to attack a nation like this and you know I don't know all the ins and outs and what's going on covertly and those kinds of things but from from an outsider looking at this you have a nation like Iran supporting terrorists like Hamas that are on a daily basis almost bombing a nation and then you had the October what is it seventh thing that happened from from from my perspective from what I can see Israel has every right in the world to attack that attack that nation and really to defend in as a matter of defense against themselves and at this church we are not pacifist by any means and there is justification for nations to defend themselves and from from everything that I can see as an outsider it looks like they have the right to do that just like the U.S. would have a right [14:31] I mean I can't even imagine if Canada was lobbing bombs at us on a daily basis and we just did almost nothing about it and we just let a country get away with it pretty unbelievable but there are many out there and I don't know always why it is but are always suspicious of Israel and think that Israel doesn't have the right to even defend themselves it's insane but of course they do just like any other nation all right so that's all I have to say about that are you ready to jump back into the book of Philippians all right so open up your Bibles if you would we're in Philippians chapter one see if I can find it by the way Philippians in our New Testament you know some of the books are easier to remember where they are but Galatians Ephesians Philippians and Colossians are hard to remember what order they're in so there's a lot of little acronyms that people will put together to remember [15:42] I'm trying to remember what some of them are go eat popcorn that's a great one go eat popcorn general electric Pepsi Cola good evangelist preach Christ that's one I've heard what was this one what general electric Pepsi Cola and then one I heard from my dear friend John Jordan girls eat potato chips and so just pick up on one of those it's the sillier it is the easier it is to remember and it will help you remember as you're flipping through where's Philippians at oh yeah yeah yeah girls eat potato chips there we go Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians let me read through the scripture we're going to look at this morning and then it's I think it's going to be a little bit shorter than what we have there in the bulletin our focus this morning but let's read this and then we'll we'll go through so Philippians verse one or excuse me chapter one verse 19 we'll start there for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope then in nothing I shall be ashamed but with all boldness as always so now also [17:08] Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain but if I live on in the flesh this will mean fruit from my labor yet what shall I choose I cannot tell for I am hard pressed between the two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you and we'll uh we'll we'll stop there I want to start off actually by telling a little bit of a story it's a story about a guy his name is Stanley Tam Tam Stanley Tam from Ohio he was actually uh born not in Ohio but grew up in Ohio he was born actually in San Francisco back in the 19 teens around 1915 1916 his dad was somewhat of an entrepreneur not a successful one basically failed at everything that he tried but he was out doing business trying to form some kind of business out in San Francisco when his son Stanley was born Stanley grew up in Lima Ohio and uh his teenage years during the depression and like so many young people in that era uh he wanted to escape poverty the poverty that he experienced and grew up in in fact even beyond that he yearned to become rich and successful one day as a young man he tried several get rich quick schemes all of them failed and then got into a business that his dad actually recommended and that was in reclaiming silver back then you had uh photo the photography process included all these chemicals and there was silver involved and silver is fairly valuable and so there were uh ways to reclaim that silver from those products and uh he had this idea through his dad to have a business reclaiming that silver and then selling it and making a profit but in the middle of uh he actually bought the rights to the business to do that and through that process found himself really struggling to make a profit found out along the way that there were two other two or three other people that had tried this and they had failed which he didn't know about tam became a christian as a young man and he eventually took his business struggles to the lord and he told god if you will help me in this business then i will honor you uh with it with the success and shortly after his business really turned around he was able to turn a profit and actually be somewhat successful in this um silver business silver reclamation business and actually turned it into a full-time enterprise for uh to support him and his family a few years later into this business he went to go see a lawyer because he had a proposition that he wanted to see if the lawyer could help him with as a way to change his business it was a very unusual proposition and the lawyer really kind of uh wasn't wasn't too willing to help because he thought that tam was a little bit crazy we're going to revisit that story a little bit later and finish it up here we are paul is writing this letter to the philippians he's writing it from where he's writing it from jail from prison [21:08] now this isn't like you know jail down at the uh you know downtown or you know where you got bars and things like that he was actually under house arrest but he had been accused of sedition by the jews and uh by appealing to caesar had made his way up to rome from jerusalem and um was now under house arrest waiting for a trial as we looked at last week he was excited about what the opportunities were to share the gospel with people in rome and with the household of caesar uh during this uh trial or during this uh imprisonment that he was experiencing there in rome the theme of of the book of philippians that we're we're looking at is rejoicing in the lord and the theme that we're gonna what we're gonna look at today is this along that theme is that we can rejoice in the lord in our life and even in our death and that rejoicing can lead to a life that is lived for him with an eye to a life that will be lived with him forever to live as christ to die as gain and that's the famous passage that is in this section that we're looking at today one that you'll find on people's walls or that people memorize looking specifically at the scriptures verse 19 he says this for i know that this what's he what does he mean this this imprisonment or this situation will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of jesus christ he seems to have some level of confidence that he's gonna get out of this what most of us would consider a mess some of your bibles might might use the word salvation that i know that this will turn out for my salvation that might confuse some people thinking he's talking about a spiritual salvation and salvation is a common word used for you know becoming a christian in a spiritual sense but here that word it's the same word that is translated salvation but is used in a different sense he's really talking about not his spiritual salvation and coming to the lord he's talking about a physical deliverance from a rescue from from his circumstances and so why is he so confident he seems confident and and the other question is did paul ever get out of this you know it seems that he actually did you know it's there's there's not a a specific account about paul getting out of prison but as we look at some of his other letters some of his later letters different commentators and bible theologians have kind of stitched together what appears to be the timeline of what happened after paul's imprisonment here in rome it seems as if he was there for about two years awaiting his trial that didn't seem to ever happen it's possible that the jews who had accused him just never showed up in rome to to be a witness in in the trial and so he was probably released after that two year period but then it seems like he had about five years of further missionary journeys missionary work in which he went back to asia and also there's indications that he went out towards europe into spain to continue preaching christ [25:08] but he was almost certainly arrested again we read from some of the early church fathers that one of the things that happened five years later is that there was huge fires that broke out in rome and the caesar at the time his name was nero decided he needed somebody to blame for those fires and he decided it was going to be this new little cult called christianity these people called the little christ the christians and he was going to blame them for the fires and so he did that and ended up rounding up lots of christians likely paul being one of them and paul's so paul is imprisoned we actually read in second timothy which is the last known book that we know that paul wrote and in that book he's writing from prison also but is it the same period it seems like it's different the tone is different and he also says this in second timothy four verse six through eight he's talking about his imprisonment and he says this he says the time of my departure is at hand and has a very different tone than what he is writing here here he is looking forward to i think i think i'm going to get out of this and be able to serve the lord in freedom but later on that wasn't the case but even here paul is open to the possibility that he may not get out of it now he's positive but maybe maybe that won't happen but looking continuing to look in this verse he says that he is he has an expectation of deliverance and he says it's through your prayers and through the supply of the spirit of jesus christ and so he is thankful and grateful for the prayers of the philippians specifically and is he saying that he knows that the prayers of the philippians will for sure affect his release from prison i don't think that that's really what he's getting at even though he's positive about it it's not a for sure thing that he's he's going to get out of this rather i think he's looking to their prayers as effective in his life in his ministry regardless of the outcome effective in making paul's ministry fruitful regardless of the circumstances if he's released then he can be fruitful in ministry in freedom and going back to the philippians or the ephesians or the colossians or maybe looking at starting a new work somewhere else but even if he dies here in this roman prison he can still be fruitful he can still be fruitful in ministry he can still be sustained by the prayers of the philippians you know paul never asks for prayer from the philippians in this letter i kind of went through the whole thing just to see i don't see any indication or any place in this letter where paul is asking the philippians to pray for me but if we look at the other prison epistles ephesians and colossians we see paul asking for prayer and does he ask please pray that i would get out of this mess that i would get out of prison let's look at a few passages ephesians 6 19 and we don't have too many verses to look at so if you got your bible go ahead and open there we can look at this ephesians 6 19 in fact i'm going to turn there too we'll [29:11] start with verse 18 he's talking about praying he's talking about the whole armor of god what did i say verse 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and then he gets specific and for me so i want you to pray for me also and this is what he asks that utterance may be given to me that i may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in chains that in it i may speak boldly as i ought to speak he's saying pray for me not necessarily that i get out of here though that would be nice i can see how i could bear fruit in my deliverance but no here's what i want you to pray for me pray that i would speak god's word boldly to all who would be willing to listen and even to those who aren't willing to listen and that i might be a good ambassador speaking clearly speaking truthfully speaking boldly as i ought to speak turn over a couple letters over to colossians colossians chapter 4 so that was the ephesians he was writing to the ephesian believers from this roman house imprisonment and then this letter is to the colossians which he's writing from the same location ephesians chapter excuse me colossians chapter 4 and we'll start with verse 2 continue earnestly in prayer being vigilant in it with thanksgiving meanwhile praying also for us don't forget about me that and here's what he asks that god would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of christ for which i also am in chains that i may make it manifest as i ought to speak and here's what i want you to pray for not that necessarily i would get out of jail though that might be an answer to prayer to be able to do more ministry but he's saying this pray for me that god would open up more doors that i could walk through to preach the mystery of christ to make it known to make it manifest as he ought to there's one more for time's sake i won't have you turn there but this is in second thessalonians chapter 3 not necessarily a prison epistle i don't believe but he says this finally this is second thessalonians 3 and verse 1 finally brethren pray for us that the word of the lord may run swiftly pray for us that as we preach the word that we preach he uses the metaphor it may run swiftly it may make progress just and be glorified just as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith so he's saying hey the word that we preach could be impeded by unreasonable and wicked men pray that those men would not impede us and so [32:37] Paul's prayers the prayers that he's requesting the prayers that he's coveting from the Philippians and from the Ephesians and from the Colossians is not just hey get me out of get me out of jail let's get the gospel out help me to make Christ known to the world and then he also mentions that it's through their prayers and then what else what's the second thing through the supply of the Holy Spirit the Spirit he says of Jesus Christ and what's that a reference to and where does the supply of the Spirit come from well remember when Jesus was on his way up to heaven he said I'm going to leave you I won't be with you anymore but I'm going to send someone else to be your helper excuse me helper to be your helper comforter and guide the Holy [33:38] Spirit the Holy Spirit of God and so through the prayers of the saints through the prayers of God's people and through the supply of the Holy Spirit as his comforter as his guide as the one who strengthens him in times of trial that's what he's looking to to help him through this trial in this Roman prison because ultimately Paul's concern is not his release but it's his witness and that goes that gets us into the next verse verse 20 Philippians 120 he says this according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but with all boldness as always so now also Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or by death and so he's talking about his earnest expectation his hope for the future he doesn't want to be ashamed he wants to be bold he wants [34:56] Jesus Christ to be magnified in his life or if the case may be in his death that is the purpose that he is going after that's what he wants the prayers for him to be about he doesn't want Christ to be hidden but proclaimed he doesn't want Christ to be obscure but to be made famous all over the world he wants to he wants Christ to be magnified we think about a magnifying glass or a microscope that he would made to be large in front of the eyes of the world and did he succeed he did everybody knew who Jesus Christ was in fact even that persecution that came later that we talked about with Nero that made the Christians even more famous and their [35:58] God that they that God that died on the cross what a weird religion your God died on a cross isn't that bizarre but that religion that that Christ figure became famous until one day this religion 300 years later I believe it was 300 years later with Constantine became the official religion of the Roman Empire he says this he says be magnified in my body what does that mean magnified in my body well I think he's talking about his fleshly or his earthly life whether it's in living life out in the earth I want Christ to be magnified or whether it's through the death of my flesh I want Christ to be magnified and so [37:02] I I ask the question is this just relevant is Paul's purpose is his vision just relevant to his life that Christ would be magnified in his life or is that the attitude the vision the motivation that all of us should have you know regardless of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in you know most of us have probably not been in jail I can imagine not for not for preaching Christ anyway most of us you know we live fairly practical simple lives but you know whether you are a famous apostle like the apostle Paul or you're just a poor villager in Africa or maybe you're a successful businessman in America we can make Jesus [38:17] Christ famous and we can make him known with the influence that we have in our lives with whatever it is that God has given us going back to the story of Stanley Tam Stanley Tam he went to that lawyer that one day and he had a proposition and he asked the lawyer and he said this he said I want to enter into a business agreement I want to take on a partner in my business it was just him he owned the business 100% just on his own he had actually started with a business partner but bought out the business partner really early on so it was just him he said I want to add on a business partner I want to add on the Lord Jesus Christ as a partner in my business and I want to make him the senior partner so I want to give the Lord 51% of my business so can you help me do that and the lawyer chuckled and said you know what just go home and think about it [39:24] I don't think that's a good idea and so he said okay and instead of going home he found another lawyer and he took the same proposition to another lawyer and the other lawyer said the exact same thing but he said you know what I said I think I just need to talk him into this he said hey I'm undeterred here I need you to help me do this and so they came up with a plan in which they would create some kind of a legal trust that would be 51% owner in his business and that he would use the profits that went to that trust to serve the Lord and that's what he did and you might think well that's not a very Christian thing to do is that true no not at all profit is good isn't it and he was going to use that profit not just for himself in fact at some point he decided he was going to put a cap on his salary or his earnings and then everything else was just going to go to the [40:37] Lord but he created that trust or foundation or whatever it was and became in the term that he put it was God is my senior partner in my business and he looked to make as much profit as he could for his business and ultimately for the Lord this silver smelting business kind of plateaued and he started to manufacturing these plastic containers these plastic bins because he didn't have to worry about any of the metal you know the interactions between metal bins And these other people saw the bins these plastic bins or containers that he was using and said hey could you make some of those for me and so he did and they would ask him to make adjustments to it could you make one like this and so he did that and eventually he got into all kinds of big plastic things that he created and there was so much business in the plastic that he decided to spin off another company and it grew and grew and grew he called that company [41:48] US plastics he used not only the money that he would earn but he used every part of the business he would put in the packages that he would send out to his customers he put gospel tracts in there make sure that the people would open up that package would get a tract with the gospel message in it in his day to day business he would share the gospel with people and he started in one of the foundations that he started was one for missions then he would go out to other countries and help fund and start mission work in countries all over the world in 1985 he made the decision to just give over the whole business to the Lord not that not that that's a required thing for any business owner and I'm not even sure exactly what that means he ended up at some point writing a book called [42:54] God Owns My Business over the course of his life and his business he's given hundreds of millions of dollars to the service of the Lord and if you're ever driving up I-75 up north going through Lima and you see this big building and it says Christ is the answer on this big factory building it's a five acre factory that makes plastics that's his company that he built but you know you do not have to be materially rich or successful materially to live your life for the Lord there's another story from a little book called missionary stories with the millers I tried to find it this weekend but wasn't able to find it there's a little missionary story about from a missionary who served in [43:57] South Africa and this missionary family was serving in a village in South America and there was a little boy who listened to the Bible stories and he just became enraptured with Jesus and became a Christian and he wanted to tell others he ended up going to this missionary school that was far from his village with permission from his parents and the village elders and as he was learning about Jesus and just taking in everything from the Bible and the gospel message he was walking to school one day and he always he was known for asking questions lots and lots of questions more questions than anybody had answers for and he saw the missionary teacher's wife and she was sweeping up and he asked her a question he said missionary lady what is that thing that you sweep all the dirt into and she said oh that's we call that a dust pan he said okay thank you and he continued on to school and when he was at school that morning with one of the missionary leaders there teaching he had an announcement to make and he says he told everybody I'm going to change my name because I am a Christian and he said my new name is dust pan and he wanted to be called dust pan because he wanted to be a dust pan for Jesus he said you know there's so many people in my own family and back in my village and their lives are filled with dirt and he said I want to be a dust pan for [45:44] Jesus to clean out all the dirt from their lives that they might be Christians too and so the story goes on he actually made a harrowing journey as a young boy back to his own village he actually got lost along the way because his feet became bloody and blistered from the journey and so they thought maybe he had perished there in the African wilderness but he eventually arrived and was so excited to share Jesus with all of his family members with everybody in the village and the missionary who writes this story reports that when they made it to the village there were 364 people waiting to be baptized because they had become Christians that little boy dust pan lived his life for Jesus verse 21 this is what [46:52] Paul says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain but if I live on in the flesh this will mean fruit from my labor yet what I shall choose I cannot tell for I am hard pressed between the two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you he said I got two options here and you might ask the question I mean did God give him option did God tell him hey you can either die here in a Roman prison or you could be released and have more ministry I don't think that's what happened but but Paul is really talking about the conflict within himself he said I have these desires he's saying if I live I'm going to live all of my life to serve the Lord to serve Christ in two ways one proclaiming him and making him known the work that he did on the cross and then two just honoring him honoring him and glorify him in everything that he does and that can be our mission and ought to be our mission as well you know as far as making [48:08] Christ known there's a book out there on evangelism on the topic of evangelism I think it's Mark Cahill is his name and the title of the book is one thing you can't do in heaven there's lots of things that you can do on earth that we'll be able to do in heaven but there's one thing that you can't do you can't share the gospel with people in heaven they're already saved they already have eternal life one thing that we can do here now that we can't do there is to share Jesus Christ with those around us but then what's the other side of this if I die in prison well hey that's all the better for me you know most people don't look forward to death right it's kind of a strange thing in a worldly sense to be looking forward to death but it seems like he has somewhat of a longing and it's not that he's looking forward to the death experience itself but for what comes after because for him just like for all believers death is not the end death is not even defeat death is just escaping this world of both good things but also bad things heartache and pain and living with the [49:39] Lord forever and ever in fact there's just one reason why he says that he's looking forward to heaven and it's not because of you know some people talk about pearly gates or golden streets that's actually talking about the new earth or the new Jerusalem I should say he's not looking forward to playing a harp on a cloud right and that's not a thing either he's not looking forward to a huge mansion what does it say that he's looking forward to to be with Christ is what he says that's what I'm looking forward to to be with him and I can tell you there is no better reward than that you know most of us don't typically look forward to death but you know I think and I've seen this in others and a little bit in myself but as you go through life and the pain the heartache the loss of life kind of builds up over the years and the more we learn of Christ and grow in him [50:49] I think the more that yearning for heaven grows on the inside of us when you're 20 years old it's really hard to see how somebody might yearn for death and heaven but as you get older I think it's easier to see in fact I don't see them here today but I think about Sheila Cutlip's mom who just passed away a few weeks ago a month or so at the age of 87 and she told me while she was still alive just a few months ago she woke up this morning and said oh I'm still here she was so looking forward to being with the Lord I think also about my friend a mentor to me in the gospels name's Bob Inyard a pastor down in Denver Colorado who worked tirelessly serving the Lord and he passed away from COVID actually a few years ago contracted the coronavirus and passed away from it but a friend of mine told me that just months earlier he had been talking to him and Bob had said to him he had a question he says is it wrong for me to want to go home to be with the [52:09] Lord is that wrong you know I think he was so weary from so much ministry and he had been to jail for the sake of the gospel and all kinds of different things people had thrown at him because of his stance for both the gospel and Christian morality fighting against abortion violence as well as other things and he was just tired he was ready to go home it's not like he was going to make it happen but he was like you know what I think I think I'd be okay with that and this is Paul's internal conflict too he says I'm hard pressed in my desires between these two things he sees the appeal of both and ultimately what's the conclusion that he comes to he says you know what even though it would be better for me if I go home to be with the Lord now I think it would be much better for you Philippians and for all the other believers if I would stay and that's the way that it is in life not just for missionaries not just for apostles not just for pastors not just for church leaders but for all of us our life here on this earth we can serve others and serve the Lord in a way that we cannot once we go to heaven and so death would benefit him the most but it wouldn't benefit the church the body of Christ at least as much and so his desire was to be was the same desire as [53:40] Jesus Christ that he would humble himself and look towards the benefit of others over his own benefit and so you know I think about this for myself do I have that same attitude towards death towards leaving this earth and going to be with the Lord and not in a despairing way right some people just despair of life and they look forward to death in that way but really just a looking forward to being with the Lord living with Christ being with him forever you know I think as we as we study the scriptures as we get to go get to know the Lord more and as that the hymn says you know the things of earth grow more dim and dim and dim and the things of God the heavenly things become brighter and brighter and brighter and so we yearn less for earthly adventures and traveling and you know buying bigger houses and getting bigger things and more for heavenly things and you know it's not that there's anything wrong with earthly things in fact [54:59] God created earthly things for us whole purpose in creating us in the earth as earthly beings was to was for our benefit for us to enjoy but you know what God himself is so much better than all of those things and so if you find yourself longing more for kind of earthly things than for the Lord just take note you know what I need to draw closer to the Lord so that we might have the same kind of mind that Paul does here but you know what until that day comes and it's coming for all of us unless the Lord comes before that which that might be let's consider our life the life that we live whatever we're doing whatever role that we have whether we're a mom staying at home with the kids or working in some kind of a sales job or running a business that in everything that we do whether big or small that in our lives we are going to magnify [56:20] Jesus Christ to make him known to glorify him in everything that we do in our success in life and whatever it be a business or growth in a career or in financial prosperity or we could even glorify him in our failures or in the challenges that we have in life when we lose a job people are watching what's he going to do when he loses that job is he going to glorify Christ or react in a different way or maybe a health challenge that we're dealing with or just the everyday trials of life you know I actually met Stanley Tam somewhere about 10 years ago at a Christian businessmen's event down in the Dayton area and he was telling his story and he was still still at the age [57:29] I think he was in his late 90s at the time in his late 90s still preaching and proclaiming Christ what Christ did for him and making Christ known he lived his life for Christ from a young age until an old age in fact as I read up this weekend it was just two years ago at the age of 107 that Stanley Tan finally passed away and after a life serving the Lord he gets to now enjoy him forever forever and so may we have that same motivation to magnify Christ until the day that we get to be with him forever because to live is Christ and to die is gain let's pray father work in us work in us to be servants of yours you've done so much for us [58:50] I ask that you would work in us that we would be able to work for you to live for you to make you known in every sphere of influence that we have to be bold witnesses for the gospel for truth for standards of righteousness for the gospel message itself that people would know that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world is willing to save by his grace anyone who comes to him in faith may we be servants of yours that serve you faithfully now and on into the future until that final day when we get to gain heaven not because of anything that we earned but because of your grace we get to then enjoy you forever we thank you for all these things in Jesus name amen all right thank you everybody who [59:54] Thank you.