Philippians 1:19-26 (Audio only)

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The following sermon is by Nathan Hargrave, the teaching pastor at 12 .5 Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

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We want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your knowledge of God, so that you might be equipped for every good work.

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And now, seeking to equip believers for every good work, here's 12 .5 Church teaching pastor,

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Nathan Hargrave. Some circumstances that have really sought to strip the

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Apostle Paul of his joy. Some circumstances that have really come after the

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Apostle Paul and tried to rip him of any contentment that he might have. And a couple of those things, the first and most obvious thing is his imprisonment.

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And we've talked about that extensively. As Paul writes this letter to the Philippians, he's chained to a Roman guard and in prison.

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And this is really just a means for the world to inflict punishment on him and circumstances on the

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Apostle Paul so that they can prove to a watching world and to the rest of the church that Paul isn't going to practice what he preaches.

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They're hoping that he breaks. They're hoping that he doesn't have contentment. They're hoping that he doesn't have joy. Because if they can cause

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Paul to lose his contentment and joy, then everything that he's preached about God being sovereign and God being in control is all for naught because he is not standing firm.

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So the world is trying to bring him down. But not only that, what we talked about last week, which is probably even more difficult for the

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Apostle Paul, is the fact that there are people within the church trying to inflict harm on him. And we saw that there are people within the church that see his position, that see his apostleship, and they see the following that Paul has and the anointing from God that Paul has on his life, and they're envious, and they're rivalry, and they're enmity with Paul, and they're seeking to inflict more harm on him while he's in prison so that they can seek self -glory out of their own insecurities or whatever that might be.

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They want to strip him of his position and put themselves in it. And so they're trying to strip Paul of any contentment and joy.

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But the good thing is that as we've studied it and as we've gone through, we have seen that both of these have failed to accomplish their task.

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Not only have they failed to accomplish their task, they've actually served to do the opposite, haven't they? They've served to do the opposite in that Paul says,

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He says, hey, my imprisonment, my circumstances, they've turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.

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And then we saw last week that, hey, these people that are trying to inflict harm on me, these people that are trying to take my position, that I rejoice because the gospel is being proclaimed.

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So both of these things that are trying to strip him of joy have not been able to do this. So how is this possible?

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How is it possible that Paul can still maintain this consistent contentment?

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How is Paul doing that? Well, I mean, we know he's content because he tells us later on in the letter in chapter 4, for I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances.

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So we know he's content. We know he's content in the circumstance that he's in because he's rejoicing. And he's praising

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God that the gospel is going forward. But I think the key is in that verse in chapter 4 of Philippians.

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He says, I have learned. Paul says, I have learned to be content. And I think, again, this is the key.

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Why is this the key? Why is it that he's learned? Well, James tells us in chapter 1 of his book, he says that these sufferings, they produce a steadfastness in us.

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These trials produce a steadfastness so that we may be lacking nothing. Well, the apostle Paul has suffered his fair share of trials, hasn't he?

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I mean, he's been shipwrecked. He's been beaten. He's been stoned. He's been imprisoned. He's been maligned by his own people from within the church.

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He has suffered his fair share of trials, and these trials have produced steadfastness in the apostle

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Paul. And I think that this steadfastness in the apostle Paul has actually served to give him a perspective.

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It has given Paul a perspective as to what the world has to offer. The world has lost its appeal to Paul, hasn't it?

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And we're going to see that in our passage today. The world has just lost its appeal. There's nothing about this world that Paul longs for, and we're going to look at that.

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But this world has lost its appeal to him, and this, I believe, as we talk about that,

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I think this is a foreign concept to us to an extent, especially here in the

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American church. I think it's a foreign concept because, let's face it, our trials, and don't hear me wrong,

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I know some of us go through some difficult circumstances, but our trials pale in comparison to those throughout history and the rest of the world.

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I mean, as I was thinking about it, I was like, man, sometimes our trials are as little as... I drove to Shadrach's the other day, and I ordered a mocha latte, and they gave me a regular latte.

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Life is terrible, right? I'm being facetious. There are times where we suffer some consequences and some things in our lives and some trials that are difficult, but for the most part, we don't understand how the rest of the world and the rest of history has suffered trial.

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We don't understand how Paul has suffered trial. And we benefit from having freedoms in our country.

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We've just had an election that probably didn't go the way that some of us had hoped it would go this week.

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God is still sovereign in that. That's all I'm going to say about that. But we love our freedoms. That's why we vote.

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That's why our forefathers have fought for freedoms. But I have to be honest with you, and if you're honest with yourself,

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I think that these freedoms have made us, the American church, fat and lazy because we've not suffered trials, and trials are what make us more like Christ.

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I think in the American church, I think we want some Jesus, don't we?

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We're going to get our Jesus on this morning in our outside worship. That's what people say. I'm going to go to church, and I love

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Jesus. We want Jesus, but we also want the American dream, and we want these two things to collide.

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We want our freedoms. We want the things that the American dream has to offer us, but yet again, it has made us fat and lazy.

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We want it all, and we don't want to suffer the way Paul did, do we? Ultimately, we don't want to suffer the way our

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Savior did, but that's exactly what we're called to because that's what's going to make us more like Christ.

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That's what made Paul steadfast and gave him a perspective as to what this world has to offer him because he suffered as Christ had suffered, and Christ, obviously, we know, did not live for himself.

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He did the opposite. He gave his life for others. He gave his life for his chosen people, and yet here we are.

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Oh, I don't want to give up. I don't want to give up my life for anyone else. We're called to do it, but we don't want to because I'm not about to give up my white picket fence.

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I'm not about to give up my safe neighborhood. I'm not about to give up my privileged freedoms.

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I'm not about to give any of this American dream up. Now, don't hear me wrong.

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I'm not identifying things that are inherently bad. These things are not inherently bad.

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I'm trying to get to the heart matter as to what value we place on these types of things, and it's a heart matter here.

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And the real question is, are we willing to gladly give all of these things up?

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Are we gladly willing to give up our American dream for the greater progress of the gospel, or do we hold so tightly to them that we can't imagine our lives without them?

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I mean, that's what an idol is, isn't it? That's the definition of an idol, something in your life that if you lost it today, you wouldn't want to continue on living.

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Look at our culture. Look at our world. Look at after the Great Depression and after the collapse in 08.

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You know how many wealthy men committed suicide because they lost their wealth? They couldn't stand going on living without that.

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That was their idol. We have our own idols, things that we don't want to live without.

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And so here in our passage today, we're going to see this perspective, a perspective that I believe gives a true believer a worldview and a taste as to what is heaven, what is real life, and what is this world.

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So I've titled the next four weeks of messages

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This Can't Be My Life, part one of four. We're going to do this over the next four weeks because this is the passage that we're in.

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This Can't Be My Life. And this title is really just a bit of a play on words, and I kind of want to explain that before we jump into our passage to help you kind of align your minds as to why

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I've chosen this and to what we're going to be studying in the Word of God. So the first way that this is a play on words, this can't be my life, is this can't be my life, as a rhetorical self -reflecting question.

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I think we've all asked ourselves this at one point or another in our lives whenever we are living our lives for ourselves.

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Whenever we're living our lives for ourselves, even when things are going seemingly great, our jobs are going well, our finances are good, our marriages are going smooth, everything seems to be great, yet there's this nagging thing inside your heart and inside your soul and your mind.

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This can't be my life. I don't have contentment. I don't have joy. So that's the first way that this is this can't be my life.

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So the second way that I believe that this title goes, and I think this is what

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Paul declared, and this is, I think, what we need to have, is this can't be my life as a mantra, as a declaration, that our lives don't belong to ourselves.

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Just like the Apostle Paul said in verse 1 when he first wrote this letter, he says, hey, me, Paul, and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ.

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We don't belong to ourselves. We've been bought with a price, and a steep one at that.

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So this is Paul. I think this is the way he said it. This can't be my life. This is a declaration, and hopefully as we study

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God's Word this morning and see the Apostle Paul in this, then we can walk away and evaluate ourselves and see if we can make that declaration.

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So with that being said, open your Bibles up to the book of Philippians. We are going to be in chapter 1, and we're going to be in verses 19 through 26 this morning, but I want us to, like we did last week, jump back one verse, verse 18, so we can get the flow of Paul's letter here.

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So Philippians chapter 1, starting in verse 18. He says, What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,

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Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the

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Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always

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Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is

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Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which

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I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

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But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this

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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.

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Notice he says at the beginning of this, this verse that we're reading, he says, Yes, and I will rejoice.

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Why is he rejoicing? He's just come out of the passage that we studied last week in verse 18 where these people in the church are seeking to inflict harm on him, but yet the gospel is going forward and he rejoices in that and he affirms that rejoicing even more here again.

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He says it a second time, Yes, and I will rejoice. So why is he rejoicing? We'll look at verse 19 with me.

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For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.

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Paul is speaking with clarity here. He says, I know. This speaks of certainty. The language that he uses here is of certainty, of a declaration that he is absolutely secure in what he's about to say and what is he about to say, what is he so sure of?

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He says that this will turn out for my deliverance. What is this deliverance he's talking about?

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Is he talking about being released from prison? Is he talking about being released from the affliction that these other believers, these other preachers are bringing on him in order to obtain what he has?

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Well, as I read this and as I ask that question, I couldn't help but think of a story that aligns with the apostle

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Paul's heart here very well that I want us to look at in Daniel chapter 3. So turn your

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Bibles back to Daniel chapter 3. You probably all know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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We learned it back in Sunday school when we were kids, didn't we? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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So let me give you a little brief overview and build up to the verses that we're going to be looking at starting in verse 16 of Daniel chapter 3.

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So King Nebuchadnezzar, he builds a golden image.

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He builds this golden image and not only that, he requires everyone to bow before this golden image.

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And here we have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who refuse to bow, of course, because they worship

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God. And so some of the leaders within King Nebuchadnezzar's regime,

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I guess, come to him and say, Listen, these three brothers, they're not bowing before the idol as you have commanded.

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And so King Nebuchadnezzar brings them before him and he asks them why and they refuse to and he gets upset and he threatens to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.

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You all remember the story, right? We all know that one fairly well. So then that leads us right up here into verse 16.

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Let's read along with me. It says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,

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O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our

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God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand,

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O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

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So here we have these three brothers who are being threatened by the idea of being thrown into a fiery furnace if they do not just simply bend the knee to a false idol.

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But they trust God and not only that, they believe God will deliver them. God's going to deliver them.

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Now I'm not going to go into depth. We're going to go back and forth here. So I want you to put a pin in that. Keep back there in Daniel 3.

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And let's go back to Paul at Philippians. Let's jump back there. Like I said, put a pin in that. Back at our passage in Philippians in chapter 1, look at verse 20 with me.

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Paul says, As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed.

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This language that he uses here, eager expectation and hope, is not referring to wishful thinking.

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This is not wishful thinking on Paul. The wording that he uses here is one of expectancy and of certainty.

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We're getting a lot of certainty from Paul in this letter, aren't we? But this is certainty here.

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Paul is anticipating to see how God will vindicate him. Paul is anticipating to see and he's longing to see

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God work. And how was he wanting to see God work? Well, go on in that passage there.

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He says, Eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed.

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That's interesting. What would Paul have possibly ever been fearful of shame?

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What shame would he be thinking of? I mean, I can imagine just like we talked about at the beginning of this, is

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I'm sure that he had this looming fear that if he did not stand firm and he did not practice what he preached, that he would be put to shame by not having contentment and joy.

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I'm sure that was a fear of shame. But I think ultimately, the shame that Paul's talking about here is the fact that he has to stand before his creator.

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He has to stand before his Lord. And if he did not live to its fullest for his

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Savior, he would have to stand before him not having lived for him.

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I think that's the shame that Paul's most concerned about, don't you? That he does not be put to shame.

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I think these are just some of the things, a couple of the things that Paul's talking about here.

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But he goes on. Look at our passage again. He says, But that with full courage, now as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body. Full courage. Full courage just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right?

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They have to go into a fiery furnace possibly. They know that that could possibly happen, yet they have full courage that they're not going to bow the knee.

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How much easier would it have been for the three brothers just to bow their knee and only worship God within their hearts?

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But they didn't because they had courage. They trusted in the providence of God. And Paul here is affirming that same full courage.

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Are you seeing the correlations between these two stories yet? They tie in together. We're seeing the heart of how a follower of the

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Lord, somebody that is a believer, truly trusts and perceives everything in his life and this world.

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And Paul goes on. He says, As always. He says, But that with full courage, now as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body. His entire life, his entire being, everything about Paul, everything in his world, everything in his mind, everything in his actions, everything, that it would bring

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Christ honor through his body. Remember? Because Paul's not his own.

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He said that right up front. I am a slave. I've been bought with a price. And here's the kicker.

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Here's the part where Paul writes that proves to us what that deliverance is. He says, But with full courage, now as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. Whether by life or by death.

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So think back to our question. What deliverance is Paul talking about? That this is going to turn out for my deliverance.

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It's obviously not an earthly deliverance, is it? The deliverance he's talking about, it transcends earthly things.

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It transcends an earthly worldview and thought. Because he says, Whether by life or by death.

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Think about that. If you're living for yourself, if you're living for life, death is not deliverance.

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We're going to see that here in just a minute. But think about the correlation with our passage back in Daniel chapter 3 with the three brothers.

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This is the same deliverance that these brothers had there. That same deliverance that they're talking about.

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Look back at Daniel 3 again with me. Look at verse 17. If this be so, if what be so?

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If we're going to be thrown into this fiery furnace, if it be so, God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.

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He's able to. Notice they say he will. He says he's able to. And then they go on.

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And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. They're going to be delivered from the king.

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The king thinks he has control. The king thinks that he can hold this over these three brothers and say, You will bow before my idol that I have created or else

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I will bring punishment upon you in the form of death through burning alive.

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And these three brothers are like, Now God's going to deliver us from you for certain. That's deliverance. This is a transcendent deliverance because in verse 18 they say,

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But if not, be it be known to you, we're not going to bow.

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They're not saying, But if not, if he doesn't deliver us from you, because they've already said he will deliver us from you.

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They're talking about, But if God doesn't deliver us from the fiery furnace, that's okay because we're still being delivered.

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That's still deliverance. That's the same perspective that Paul has here in Philippians, isn't it?

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It's the same idea that he has of this deliverance. Paul said over in Acts chapter 20 verse 24,

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He says, But I do not account my life as any value nor precious at all to myself. He's not living his life for himself because he doesn't belong to himself.

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Paul's not holding tight to the things of this world and trying to have a little Jesus over here, is he?

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He's not trying to hang on the way we hang on. And Paul, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, don't count their life as any value or precious to themselves.

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They don't count it as any value in this life. They don't belong to themselves.

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And then that leads us here, go back to Philippians verse 21.

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Here we see our grand declarative verse that Paul has. We're all familiar with this one, aren't we? For me to live is

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Christ and to die is gain. In the

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Greek, there's no verb there. Paul basically just says, To live, Christ. Die, gain.

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He gets straight to the point, doesn't he? I love Paul, how he writes,

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This life does not belong to us. We read Paul's words here, but the habit of our lives and the things that we hold so dear bear witness that we do not truly feel this same way.

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Don't they? They bear witness to us because we like to say that.

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We love that verse. To live is Christ, to die is gain, but our lives bear witness to us that we don't truly, honestly mean that at times.

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Because how many of us can truly say this? How many of us can truly, at this moment in our lives, truly say what

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Paul said here? If I live, my entire life is committed to my Master. Everything about me, everything in my being is committed to Jesus Christ, and I will burn everything else to the ground in order to align myself with it.

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How many of us can say that? I will count all of it as loss. All of it. My life doesn't belong to myself, and not only does it not belong to myself, my life doesn't belong to myself, and I will burn everything to the ground to align to it, but I long to die.

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Death is the greatest possible option for me. How often have you been able to say that?

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Because Paul did. Paul didn't just throw these words out there for nothing.

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These are inspired by the Holy Spirit. He meant it. He meant that to die is gain.

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That's the best possible option for me. With that,

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I think we have to answer a question. How can we possibly see death as the greatest possible outcome?

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How? How do we see death as a possible outcome? Because Scripture speaks of death as the enemy, doesn't it?

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God told Adam right there at the beginning, He said, hey, you eat that fruit, you will surely die.

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That's not a good thing. That's a bad thing. Death is a bad thing, isn't it? Death is terrible.

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How can we see it as gain? How in the world? Because Paul even speaks of death as the enemy over in 1

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Corinthians. He said, death, the final enemy. This death doesn't seem to be gain to us.

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So again, I ask, why is death gain to Paul? Because of Christ, isn't it?

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It's been conquered. Adam brought death into the world. God said, you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.

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And he disobeyed and he brought death into the world. And then the better Adam came and defeated that death. Over in 1

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Corinthians 15, the second part of 54 on through 57, the beginning part is a reference to Hosea 13, if you want to jot that down in your notes.

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But he says, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

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The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. For a believer, death has lost its sting, hasn't it? It's been defeated because of Christ.

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So a Presbyterian pastor, 1950s, 1960s, I believe, Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse.

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I don't know if any of you are familiar with him. Dr. Barnhouse lost his wife.

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And after leaving the funeral in the car with his children, he's driving away from a funeral that he's lost his wife, they've lost their dear mother, and he's trying to think of some way to console them.

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He's trying to think of some possible way that he can speak to his children. Here's a man I can only imagine, he goes,

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I'm a pastor, I'm a preacher, I deal with death all the time. How am I going to speak to my own children after losing their mother to death?

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As he was driving, a truck, a moving truck, drives past them.

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And that moving truck casts a shadow over their car. And that truck drives past them and pulls out in front of them.

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And the inspiration comes to Dr. Barnhouse. And he says to his children,

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Would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow? And of course his children said,

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Well of course we'd rather be a shadow, a shadow can't harm us. And this is where Dr. Barnhouse said,

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Do you know that 2 ,000 years ago the truck of death ran over the Lord Jesus in order that only his shadow might run over us?

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What beautiful imagery here. What a beautiful imagery of the

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Christian life that he gave to his children in that moment after losing their mother. Would you rather be hit by a truck or the shadow of a truck and our

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Lord and Savior took the penalty, he took the hit. King David even understood this.

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As a matter of fact, you all know this passage. Turn over to Psalm 23 with me, I want you to see it. This may not have struck you before as you've read through this popular and very well -known

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Psalm that King David wrote. Psalm 23, verse 4, he says,

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Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You catch that?

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I will fear no evil. The shadow of death. Even King David knew, even the psalmist knew that God would send a better Adam.

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Even in the limited revelation that he had there in the Old Testament before Christ, he knew that a better Adam was coming.

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Praise God. Paul knew it.

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It had been revealed, we know it. David knew it. That truck of death hit our

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Savior full on so that when it passes by us, it is merely a shadow. It's a lion without teeth and without claws.

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It cannot harm us. It can do nothing to us. That's why Paul could say, death is gain for me.

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Death, the enemy, the ultimate enemy, the enemy of all mankind, the Adam brought into the world, Christ is defeated.

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And so Paul can declare with confidence that to live is Christ. I burn everything else to the ground.

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This is for Christ. Because this is just a blink. This is just a blip on the radar of my life.

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But death, that's gain. But until that day, we still have a life to live for Christ, don't we?

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So until then, turn back to our passage in Philippians. Let's keep reading.

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Paul says in verse 22, If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

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Paul's not talking about things that he holds dear. He's not talking about his career. He's not talking about aspirations.

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He's not talking about children and grandchildren. He's not talking about things of this world. No, this is fruitful labor.

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It's gospel work that he's talking about. Not acquiring things in comfort. Not seeking freedoms. Not looking at politics.

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Not any of that. He says, If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which

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I shall choose, I cannot tell. So now we see a conflict in the

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Apostle Paul. We see this conflict. Why would he say death is gain, but still have conflict in his own heart?

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Wouldn't that just be an easy answer? Just die. If that's gain, just die. He goes on in verse 23.

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He says, I am hard pressed between the two. Either live or die. He says,

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My desire is to depart and be with Christ. For that is far better. That die is gain.

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But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Right here we see the love that Paul has for the bride of Christ.

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We see his heart here. This is an example of all the things we've been studying over the past few weeks.

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Of what Paul is calling the Philippian church to be. Because even though Paul wants to go and be with Christ, he loves the idea of finally seeking that gain of death.

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But he is willing to die to himself. He's willing to deny himself for others.

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That's the only reason he's staying. Because he wants to serve Christ, because of his love for the bride.

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This can only be fueled by love. Remember that abounding love that we talked about a few weeks ago? The love that the

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Apostle Paul says, He says, Hey, to the church at Philippi, My prayer for you, my first and foremost prayer for you, is that your love may abound more and more.

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He's showing that in his own life. His love is abounding more and more. So much so that he's willing to give up what he wants the most for their sake.

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It's being fueled by love. Then he goes on in verse 25. He says, Convinced of this,

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I know that I will remain and continue with you all. Convinced, that's pretty bold for him to say.

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Convinced of this, I know I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.

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Catch that? He's remaining here for them. Not for selfish ambition like these other pastors that are preaching in order to obtain what their insecurities desire.

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But he wants to stay for the people, the bride of Christ. Remember the ending of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

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We all remember it. King Nebuchadnezzar did throw them in the fire.

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As a matter of fact, he had the fire brought up so hot that it killed the guards that were trying to put them in.

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And they walk in, and what happened? There were three that walked in, and the king and his entourage,

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I guess that's what you'd call a king of that time, his people, are watching, and they see a fourth man in there.

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And they're delivered. They walk out of that fire, don't they? They walk out of the fire unscathed. Their clothes aren't even touched.

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They walk out of the fire unharmed. But God would have been just in allowing them to burn. Make no mistake.

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We hear that story in Sunday school, and we like to tell kids, oh, well, see, if you just trust God and obey

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God, you will never be burned. You'll never have harm come upon you, physical harm. But they knew this fire could burn us, but ultimately it didn't.

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And because it didn't, their living, their not being burned, was used by God for the benefit of his people.

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The king no longer required people to bow to that idol, and he knew who the one true

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God was because they saw his power in it. They saw his power. And so in their lives, their living turned out for the greater progress of God's ultimate plan, which is the gospel.

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This is what a life committed to Christ looks like. How do we live for Christ?

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By committing our lives to the progress and joy of others within the church. That's how we honor

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Christ in our bodies. To live as Christ, we honor Christ by living our lives for the progress and joy of others within the church.

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Paul's not conflicted about life or death. His conflict between these two options is not because of his love for the things of this world, or even a fear that he might have of losing something about this world.

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Because our fears about dying tend to feed from earthly things, don't they? We have a fear of dying because of earthly things, experiences that we've yet to experience, things that we've yet to be able to enjoy in this world.

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Maybe our kids growing older and getting married. Maybe our grandkids being born. We want to see those things, and that's what makes us fear death.

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We fear the future, what will happen. The last thing we're typically concerned about is the spiritual well -being of the church, though, of our brothers and sisters.

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So I want you to ask yourself a question today. If you died, if you leave this place today and you die,

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God forbid, but you do, would it actually leave a void in the church?

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Would it leave a void in the church? Paul was so convinced that his death would leave a void that he assumed that he would continue living on.

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He knew that his gifts and his abilities that God had granted him were used for the betterment and the joy and the advancement of the gospel within the church and for the benefit of the other believers.

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He knew that because he brought his gifts to the benefit of the church.

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Do you bring your gifts to the benefit of the body, or do you just receive from others' gifts? Are we just takers?

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Do we receive the benefit of coming and being entertained or being brought in by other hospitable

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Christians and their gifts, and we receive the benefit of that, or do we bring our gifts to that body?

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And lastly, verse 26 here in our passage of Philippians 1, he says,

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He's not saying in me that you would glory in me. He's saying that because in me, my life, my being here and coming to you again is going to bring

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God ultimate glory. It's going to bring glory to our Savior Jesus Christ, my life, everything about me.

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So we say we're living for Christ, and if you are, your gifts will be used for the progress and joy of the body, won't they?

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If we're living for Christ, our gifts will be used for the progress and joy of the body. Is your life causing others to glory in Christ Jesus?

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Are others glorying in Christ Jesus because of your life? If not, what are you living for?

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Are you living for Christ? Are you living for self? Remember the title of our message,

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This Can't Be My Life. Do you find yourself asking that question, this can't be my life, not able to find contentment and joy?

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If so, it could be because you're living for yourself. And if you're living for yourself, death isn't gain.

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That's for sure. When it's all about this life, it's all about me, death isn't gain any longer.

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Death is the end. Or can you say, this can't be my life.

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This can't be my life as a declaration, like Paul did. That you will die to self and live for Christ.

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And in living for Christ, you will be living for the bride of Christ. That's what Paul did. That's how we live for Christ.

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To live for Christ, to die is gain. That live for Christ is living for Christ's bride, this church, the church, the universal.

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But seeing within the context of a local body of believers, where you can truly bring your gifts and abilities, what

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God has gifted you, what God has called you to, what God has given you a passion to do, in order to bring to the benefit of the body, that's living for Christ, for the greater progress of the gospel.

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Only then can you say to live as Christ and to die as gain. That's what we've seen in the example of the

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Apostle Paul. So as we go about our week, we should ask ourselves these questions.

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If I die today, will it leave a void in the church? And if not, then go to the

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Lord. Go to God. Repent. Ask God to work in your life and in your heart to change your perspective.

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And I'll tell you how he's going to do it. He's going to bring trials. That's the only way that perspective really lands in our thick skulls, isn't it?

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He's going to bring trials. I promise you that. And that's a scary thing to pray for, isn't it?

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But those trials are going to produce a steadfastness, that you'd be lacking nothing, and we would be able to say like Paul, to live as Christ and to die as gain.

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This world has nothing to offer me. Real life starts at death. Let's pray.

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Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you. Thank you again for joining us.

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If you have any question about today's message or just want to learn more, you can reach us at info at 12fivechurch .com.

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You can also go to our website at 12fivechurch .com. That's the word 12 and the number 5, church .com.