The Honor of the Christian Life

Turn with me to Philippians chapter 1. Now, Paul is in prison, but he's joyful.

He's joyful regardless of being chained to a prison wall. Because he's in prison, there are a lot of guys out there preaching.

There are many preaching Christ, though much of it is in envy and in strife, as Paul tells us.

They're jealous of Paul. They're glad that he is kind of out of the way to give them an opportunity to do their own preaching.

But regardless of that, Paul doesn't care. Why doesn't he care about it? Well, let's look at verse 18.

Read some verses together, and we will find out why. He says in verse 18, For to me, to live is

Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor.

Yet what I shall choose, I want not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence,

I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be abundant in Jesus Christ, may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me when

I come back to you again. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this wonderful day and for bringing us all together.

We ask you to bless this time. We ask you to bless this message and these words, that they be yours and that your spirit is upon us while we worship in spirit and in truth.

And again, Lord, we just ask that the message and these words of Scripture edify us, encourage us, and are with us far beyond today.

We ask all these things in your name. Amen. Now, in this opening chapter of his epistle to the

Philippians, Paul is giving us a really interesting admission here. Now, as we know,

Paul could be a very, very honest guy when it came to a number of things. Number one, when it came to his passion for the gospel.

Dad has been referencing the book of Galatians quite a bit lately in the study that he's doing. And you read the epistle to the

Galatians, and it is just white -hot passion with regard for the gospel and ensuring that it is delivered correctly and it is lived out correctly.

It's dealing with people that are trying to add a lot to it, and it just doesn't work. So Paul was always very honest when it came to his passion for the gospel, and the entire epistle of Galatians is a great example of that.

He was also really honest with his own personal battle against sin. Now, you think about the apostle

Paul, arguably the greatest Christian that ever lived, and yet we learn more about the battle with sin, the flesh warring against the spirit, than we learn from just about anybody else, at least from an individual.

And we learn that explicitly in Romans 7. We see this battle, who can deliver me from this body of death?

Paul understood this battle, and he was very honest about it. But there was another thing that we saw here in this

Philippians passage that he was very honest about. He did not mind letting his brothers and sisters know about it, and that was his desire to be with the

Lord, his desire to be in heaven with Him. And we see that in Philippians chapter 1.

So as Paul begins to embark on yet another masterpiece of inspired

Christian writing, that being this epistle to the Philippians, urging his brothers and his sisters to experience perpetual joy, joy all the time, in the

Lord, while he himself is chained to a prison wall, he sets the tone for his letter here by, again, being very honest and sharing his highest desire in life, and that is to be with Christ.

Now, this can and it probably is a very natural desire for all of us. Anybody that is one with Christ, anyone that has called upon His name, we're going to have that desire.

We want to see the Lord ourselves. We want to have that desire ourselves. It's a very natural one.

For every Christian that's ever lived, that great hope of seeing the Lord for the first time can be a really powerful thing, and it's expanded each and every time that we ourselves experience hardships in this world.

So when we're out living, when we're living our lives, and we see the sin around us, when we see the sin within ourselves, when we see the turmoil and the toil that is just going on, we see the effects of the fall of Adam to this very day, that experience can actually expand our desire even more to just be with the

Lord. The medicine for all, the medicine for all hardships that we could ever go through would be to be in His presence right now, whether that be

Him returning or whether that be us departing and going to Him.

But Paul understood that that's not what it was all about. It's a big part of it, sure.

I mean, one of the main parts, perhaps, because we know that we were created to be with God for all of eternity.

Paul tells us that in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 1 .9 is a beautiful verse that talks about that promise that was made between the

Father and the Son before the world began, before time eternal. That is when they decided that they wanted to have a people to commune with.

So we were created to be with the Lord. That is a big part of the overall story of redemption, for sure.

But there is more to it than that, as God designed. Now, really quickly, before I jump into the main thing

I want to talk about today, I want to briefly summarize this whole passage that we just read so that we can get an idea of what's happening here.

So Paul has come to a place in his ministry where he knows that he will never be put to shame.

It doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter what goes on in his life, who persecutes him, what turmoil he experiences himself.

He's never going to be put to shame at any point in his ministry. His work and his perils and his tribulations, even his sorrow, his passion, all of it will be upheld in the end.

It's not purposeless. There's nothing purposeless about his ministry, and Paul understood that. But rather, it's to be used as an instrument to magnify

Christ's name in life or in death. That's verse 20. Now, Paul knows that the ultimate glory is to be in the presence of Christ, but he also understands that this life on earth, his life right here, as he's living it, is a glory to Christ in itself, and therefore he recognizes that to live is

Christ. That's verse 21. Now, because of this reality, he says that his life will be equal to fruitful labor.

His life will be equal to fruitful labor, fruitful work. Everything he does will mean something.

Everything he does will take part, will contribute to fruit bearing, something that will happen to expand

God's kingdom. Everything he does in his life, not just living out his days, not just wanting to go on to the next life, not just waiting for the rapture, he's not waiting around for the grave, he would work, and that work would mean something to Paul, and it would mean something to God.

It would be accomplishing God's mission on earth, and he recognizes all of this in verse 22.

But even knowing this, knowing that his life is meaningful, knowing that his life meant something important, and was an honor in the sight of God, he still didn't know what he would choose if he were presented with the option.

If Jesus were to come up to him and say, I'm giving you the choice, Paul. You can come be with me, or you can stay here and work for your brothers and your sisters.

He said, if I were presented with that option, I don't know what I would choose. In verse 22 there, when he says,

I what not, it's kind of a nifty old King James way of saying, I can't tell.

I don't know what I would choose. And he goes on and he says, he basically reaffirms what he says in verse 21.

He tells us that it would certainly be better for him, as an individual, to depart and be with the

Lord right now. So, when you take that angle, maybe that's what I would choose, is kind of what he's saying. That's his greatest desire.

Again, he says it in verse 23. Yet, in verse 24, he tells us that to continue on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

So, you take it from the angle of him as an individual, of course, being with Christ is the ultimate desire.

But, when he thinks about it from the angle of his loved ones, his brothers and sisters in Christ, in other words, those that he converted, those that were part of this church at Philippi that he planted, those that he is writing to and is constantly wanting to know how they're doing, when it comes to them, it would be better if he stayed.

That's what he says in verse 24. Now, at this point, Paul is confident that this is the right call.

Paul is confident that living and not departing is the right call. That this living for the sake of the church at Philippi is

Christ. Again, that's what he said in verse 21, reaffirmed in verse 23. His very presence on earth will lead to their progress and their joy in the faith, and that's what he says in verse 25.

Me being here contributes to your sanctification process, which is an amazing thing. We talk often about God's sovereignty over the means just as much as the ends.

This is an example of that. Is it the Holy Spirit that sanctifies us? Yes. Can a man like Paul, a solid preacher and proclaimer of God's word, sanctify you?

Yes. It's still the Spirit. But he's working through these instruments that he ordained to go fulfill this mission.

This joy that he talks about in verse 25, this progress that he talks about in verse 25, he says will be all the more abundant upon his return to them in person.

And that's verse 26. Now, I want to use this passage as just a way to lead into a concept that is very applicable to all of us each and every day.

You read this passage, there are obvious hints of Paul's specific ministry here.

So talking about immediate context, yes, Paul's talking about himself, his ministry, what living, how him being alive, what the implications are to his ministry.

With that, what would happen if he went to be the Lord right now? So there are specific hints to Paul's ministry in this passage, no doubt.

But I'd like for us to consider something rather distinct that he said right in the middle of this context regarding his fruitful labor for the sake of the

Philippians. And it's in verse 21 when he says, To live is

Christ and to die is gain. Specifically, to live is

Christ. Now, I've said it a few times in recent months in our Wednesday night

Bible studies and Sunday school. I may have even said it in a recent sermon. But it's worth repeating, and that is that as Christians, we have lives to live.

We have lives to live. Even after the point of our justification, there is lots of life to be lived out.

And because of that, we're put in a position to make choices every moment and every day in how we're going to do that, how we're going to live out these lives after the point of our salvation.

The context of me bringing it up recently is that a lot of people have this sad misconception that, well,

I want to put it a little bit differently than that, because it is actually genuine. You get saved, and you feel great.

It's a euphoria that is genuine, and it should be there because you realize that you have been saved from the slave master of your own sin.

Okay, so that's legit. That is genuine, and you should feel that. But a lot of times in the presentation of the gospel, perhaps, with others presenting it, or maybe you're at a

Christian conference, or maybe you're just at a very large church, and the hype is just so magnificent, you feel like this is what

Christian living is all about all the time. And that's where it can trip people up a little bit, because what they will soon discover is that they are actually entering a battlefield.

It is not heaven. It's not paradise yet. They first have to go through the boot camp, and then the battles, and the ultimate war to get to paradise with their

Creator. And so, when we get saved, from that point forward, we still have lives to live.

How are we going to live them out? That's where our choices, of course, come into play, and the teachings that we are under, and all of these types of things.

In Sunday school, we're talking about living out the sound doctrine that God gives us in Scripture. So what are we going to do with these lives that we have?

What are we going to do with them? Because we sometimes mess up, because sometimes living that life is hard, legitimately, full of toil, we can forget that to live out the

Christian walk is actually an honor for us to get to partake in. Living out the

Christian walk is an honor. Now, granted, it's an honor that isn't so obvious to us all the time.

Much like parenthood, or even the ministry, the Christian walk, in general, doesn't always feel honorable.

We can all think to times as parents, or being a part of a local church body, perhaps even our own work, ministry, if you're involved with that, there are times when the work doesn't feel honorable.

It feels messy, and you wonder if you're even doing it right. And all of these feelings that all of that kind of stuff evokes, it doesn't feel honorable, but it is true that every bit of it is honorable by definition.

And we can glean that reality a little bit from verse 21 when Paul says, to live is

Christ. Now we can easily find ourselves, like Paul, thinking of the gain of death as a mere portal to the presence of God.

So death isn't scary to the Christian. We'll talk about that more in just a second. But death is simply the entrance into glory.

It's nothing more than a portal. And Paul knew that. We know that. It's a portal into everlasting life.

It is presence with God for life everlasting. Paul understood that.

There will be times that we yearn, like Paul, for that next phase in life. Like Paul, there will be times when we yearn for heaven in the presence of the

Lord. But, also like Paul, we must recognize the honorable service that we have been put here to complete.

In this life, we must be ready to live out the doctrine that comes to us through God's word.

Again, Titus 2, verse 1. For us to live is Christ because he is our life.

He's what brings us purpose. He bestows upon us our own set of responsibilities. And then he gifts us with the gifts we need for accomplishing those responsibilities.

It's all by design. It's all Christ. He is the standard for life.

Without a standard to base life from, our lives would be, in fact, utterly meaningless. The naturalistic idea that life is just an illusion, that will is an illusion, that consciousness is an illusion, that would be accurate if it weren't for Christ.

But, thankfully, we have him. We have the first fruits of the resurrection. He is the standard for life. He is the one that told us, this is what life looks like.

This is what I intended life to look like. He is the standard. Therefore, when we live these lives here on earth, yes, glory awaits us.

But, to live is Christ. Christ told us, point blank, that he is the standard.

When he said, I am the resurrection, I am the life, in John 11, 25. That is what we're talking about today.

The Christian walk is an honor for us to partake in. The Christian life is an honor.

And it's worthy of honor, by design. We were each born at a very specific time, very specific place, in an otherwise sweeping historical timeline.

Massive things are happening all around us. They have always been happening. And yet, we've been put in that storyline by the storyteller himself, as characters in his story.

And what that means is that even the most, and I want to emphasize this, seemingly trivial, even the most seemingly trivial things, trivial aspects of our lives, they mean something.

How do we know that? Because to live is Christ. Now, to understand

Paul's words there, in that very distinct little phrase, and the impact that it has for Christians in their walk, we have to first understand the

Christian view of death. I want you guys to turn to 1 Corinthians with me for a second.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15, which is one of the most interesting chapters in the whole

Bible. Paul covers so many massive things, so many doctrinal things in this one chapter, that it would take a long time just to go verse by verse through that one chapter and get everything out of it.

But, near the end of it, he talks about something really interesting. Look at verse 54 with me.

This is 1 Corinthians 15. Starting in verse 54, he says,

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, because of that, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Of course, this is exactly what

Paul just said about his own ministry in Philippians. And he's extending that reality to us right now.

He's saying that because death will be swallowed up in victory, there is no vanity in your labor.

He says because of this reality, that to the Christian, death is nothing more than a portal to the presence of God.

Because of this, abound, be unmovable, and abound in your work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the

Lord. Death will be swallowed up. But here's what's interesting about it. Because we think about that in the future.

We think, okay, death will be swallowed up. Yes, the Lord will return. It'll be beautiful.

We're not there just yet. Well, there's a sense in which it has already been conquered. You don't have to turn here if you don't want to.

You could write it down just as a cross -reference. But in 2 Timothy 1 .10,

listen to what Paul says. He says, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who hath, past tense, abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

So yes, death will be swallowed up in victory. It'll be consummated at the return of Jesus.

This reality will be consummated then. But it has happened. Death has been conquered.

And because it has been conquered, it has now become a threshold for the believer.

A threshold that separates us from our pain, from our sorrow, our stress, the devil himself, and our own worst enemy, our sin.

Our sin, our struggles, all of these things. Death separates all of that from eternal life with our

Creator. And so, what is the Christian view of death? The Christian view of death is that dying is now gain for the believer, which is what

Paul said in that same verse. To live is Christ, to die is gain. It is gain for us now.

The Christian view of death is that it's nothing more than the final hurdle to the presence of manifest glory with the

Lord. But of course, this begs the question, why shouldn't we as believers just long for the grave then?

Why shouldn't we just sit around kind of waiting stuff out? If that's the finish line that we're all shooting for.

If that's what we're all desiring, if that's what we're all wanting to come, why not just sit around, wait for it, and just do whatever we need to to survive until we can get there?

If it's truly gain, why shouldn't we long for the grave? Why shouldn't we long to enter Christ's presence?

Well, the answer is because to live is Christ. Yes, to die is gain, but to live this life right now on this earth is

Christ. To have the desire to be with Jesus is natural for any Christian as it was for Paul.

But we shouldn't have that desire in the place of an understanding that to live is

Christ. So, don't misunderstand me. The desire to be with Jesus all the time is a beautiful thing.

It's a natural thing. Paul had it himself. We should have it. If the Lord came back right now, we would glory in that.

If the Lord decides to take any one of us home at any given moment, we will glory in it because we will be in literally the presence of glory.

That desire is fine as long as it doesn't replace our calling here on earth.

As long as it doesn't turn us into the kind of person that proverbially sits on the roof with the white sheet and is just waiting for the rapture to happen.

And as silly as that sounds, there are people, especially in the Bible Belt, that live their lives functionally like that.

They desire heaven so much that they forget about the other side of the same coin.

To live this life right now is Christ. We should understand both like the

Apostle Paul did. The Christian walk is, in fact, one fraught with persecution and peril.

Because it's not paradise yet, it's a war right now. We're in a battle. It's what I was alluding to earlier. And there are many fronts to this war.

We constantly, as believers, run the risk of being totally surrounded by all of our enemies at once. Sometimes we are, and sometimes we are for a long season.

But despite these things, it is still an honor to have been called to fight this fight.

To fight these battles. We are literally warrior emissaries. We do two things.

We're fighting a battle and we're out there proclaiming God's gospel. We are warrior emissaries for the captain of our salvation, as the writer of Hebrews puts it.

We shouldn't long for the grave because, as believers, we should have a tacit understanding that our lives have unique purpose, which no other person is capable of fulfilling to expand

Christ's kingdom on earth. He has called each and every one of us to serve, to fight, to worship, to glorify

Him in everything that we do. Christians don't long for the grave because we don't seek to escape these things.

We seek to resist the enemy. We stand strong knowing that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His church, as Jesus said in Matthew 16.

We don't seek to avoid the toil of this life. We seek to work and to serve the

Lord in this life because He has called us to fulfill our purpose that no one else can fulfill.

Paul desired heaven, yes, and we can too, and we should. But he also longed to serve the

King of heaven and the King of earth, and we should too. To live as Christ. That's what

Paul said. Now, why is it? Why is it that living is Christ? It's because the life of the disciple of Christ is not measured in years.

We've been talking about this in Sunday school too. The life of the believer is not measured in years. It's measured in generations.

It's measured in eternity. When Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes that God put eternity in our hearts, he means that we have the capacity as believers to do all of our daily tasks, whether it's the short -term future or the long -term visionary things that we have out for our family to the second and third generation.

All of it can be done in the context of eternity. In other words, thinking about eternity in all of it.

That is how our lives are measured. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 verse 1,

You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That was our stake.

That was our condemnation before a just and wrathful God, but He didn't leave us there.

He didn't leave us in that state. He raised us to new life in Christ, which, of course, is the act of grace by which we're saved.

We who were once dead now live, and to live is Christ. Yes, spiritually, of course.

This is what the main thrust of Paul's argument is in Ephesians 2. Eternal life, spiritual life, for sure.

But also, life with a higher purpose now, as well.

A higher purpose now. Christ once told us that I am come, that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

He gave us eternal life, certainly. But we have every reason to believe that He has given His sheep abundance now.

Now let me say this really quick, because we know that we have some awesome Prosperity Gospel guys out there that say all kinds of ridiculous things each and every week.

When we talk about having abundance in this life right now, as the sheep of the shepherd, that doesn't necessarily mean in the way that the world defines abundance.

Does that make sense? The abundance that a Christian can have will not always be defined as abundance by the outside secular world.

But it is abundance from the biblical view of things, from God's view of things.

It's abundance in fruitful labor. It's abundance in fruitful work, as ministers, as believer priests, as warrior emissaries for the

King of Heaven. Fruitful work. That is the abundance that we can have in this life.

We flipped around a little bit. Go back to Philippians with me one more time. I want to read a few verses out of the second chapter now.

We started with that passage this morning in chapter 1. To live is

Christ, to die is gain. What does this work look like? What does this abundance look like?

What does it mean to be a fruitful laborer as a believer in the Lord Jesus right now?

Not just yearning for heaven, but enjoying and even reveling in the work that we have now.

Look at Philippians chapter 2. Start in verse 12.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 12. Paul says, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings.

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and a perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

Yea, and if I offered up the sacrifice in service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.

For the same cause also you joy and rejoice with me.

God works in all of us. He's always working in His people, in His believers, those that trust in Him as the

Lord of their life. He is working in them all the time. He's giving us the capacity to do

His good pleasure in this life. He's working in us, and He says, Alright, now take that and run with it.

I'm working in you. Take that and do something with it. Live out the

Christian walk. Do my good pleasure. Our works, as Paul alludes to there in verse 12, these works that he's talking about, this fruitful labor as a

Christian, it literally proves our own salvation. When he says, work out your own salvation in fear and tribbling, we're proving our salvation, we're giving ourselves assurance, and we're showing the world at the same time what

Christian living should look like. Work out your own salvation. Prove your salvation in these works.

It causes the world to see that we are, in fact, sons and daughters of the one true God. But what does this work look like?

Because we know it's there. We know the labor can be without vanity.

It's not in vain, as Paul said. What does the work itself look like?

In other words, what are the particulars of this work? And there are a lot of passages we could look at.

I want to take a look at just a couple really fast, just to give you a taste of it. What does this work look like?

We're told in Hebrews that the honorable work that we fill our lives with is serving

God's people. That's one of the biggest aspects of our fruitful labor, is serving God's people. He says in Hebrews 6 .10,

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.

Another way you could say that is, you are serving my people and you are serving. You have served them, you are serving.

That's what our work looks like. Love for the brethren. Ministering to the saints. Acts of love.

This is the kind of abundance that we have in this life, right this moment. Now, Paul didn't ever want

God's people becoming tired of this kind of work. Because, let's face it, we're still fallen humans.

We still get tired. We can still let the best of us kind of slip away sometimes.

And so Paul understood this. He himself was a human, of course, and he had some really tough work.

He went through so many trials and tribulations himself that it is amazing. From the human viewpoint, it's amazing that Paul finished the race well, like he said that he did in 2

Timothy. Of course, it was by God's grace, so we know that that's how it was possible. But he understood that you can grow tired.

A person can grow tired of this life and the work they're in, even if it's a holy calling, even if it's work that is a labor of love for the saints, ministering to the saints.

And he didn't want us to get tired of it. He didn't want us to become tired of this good work because he knew that when the time was right, it would all produce a bountiful harvest of happiness, a bountiful harvest of joy.

And in Galatians 6, we actually read the first part of this passage this morning in Sunday school, but starting at verse 9, this is what

Paul says. And let us not be weary in well -doing. In other words, let's not get tired with these good works that we have been called to do in this life.

Yes, yearn for heaven, desire to be in the presence of our Lord, but don't get tired of well -doing right now.

Let us not be weary in well -doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

That implies that believers can get tired and they can get to the point where they neglect their higher calling, their holy calling perhaps, because they're letting the tired get the best of them.

Paul is saying, don't do that, don't faint. Keep running well, because the prize, the finish line, is well worth the toil that it takes to get there.

And he was talking from personal experience. Don't be tired, don't be weary. In verse 10 he says, as we have therefore opportunity, every chance we get, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith, which kind of comes back to what the writer of Hebrews was saying, wasn't it?

Acts of love, labor of love, ministering them and having ministered to them and ministering now, especially to them who are of the household of faith, but do good to all men, every opportunity that we get.

God is working in us, so let's live out that work in our lives in the way that Paul intended when he said to live as Christ.

He knew that his labor would be fruitful. He knew that his labor would be meaningful and full of honor in the eyes of the life giver,

Jesus Christ. Paul himself wrestled with his overwhelming desire to be present with the

Lord while also understanding the honor of living out the Christian walk.

So as long as we are alive, we serve. We recognize this honor. We serve.

We bear fruit. We love the brethren. We build God's kingdom on earth. Solomon once told us in Ecclesiastes that there is a time to be born.

There's a time to die. There's a time to plant. There's a time to pluck up that which is planted. So God is sovereign over the day that we enter this life.

He's also sovereign, though, over the moment that we exit this life as well. And in between that sovereign moment that we're brought into this earth and that sovereign moment when we do depart and go into the presence of our

Lord, in between those two, we are immortal with regard to the wiles of the devil, the attacks of our enemy, all other enemies that we have, and it is within that reality that our lives become infused with meaning and with purpose.

In this life, Paul tells us in our original passage that we read this morning that his only desire is that Christ is magnified no matter what, in life and in death, to live as Christ, to die as Gain.

As long as the Lord is magnified, and I know He will be, I am happy. I am content. That's one of the great messages of the epistle to the

Philippians. Every person that has ever lived and that ever will live is given time in their lives at the exact same rate as everyone else.

It's ticking just as steadily for us as it is for anybody else, undisrupted by anything.

And Solomon, also in Ecclesiastes, tells us that because of that reality, life is just a breath.

In the KJV, it says vanity. The Hebrew literally means breath. Life is just a breath.

Life is just vanity. James tells us that it's nothing but a vapor. And so because of this, it is particularly important for people, and I would say for believers in particular, to be preparing for that inevitable day when the clock does stop ticking.

In other words, we have been given a life to live, and there is obviously purpose in that.

If we've been given a life to live, there is obviously purpose in having that life to begin with.

We have something to be doing in order to prepare for the next great phase after this life.

And so at the end of this life, we get to have what will essentially be a glorious exit interview with the king, and he will summarize the things that we did in this life before we move on to our next phase of work.

And yes, after this life, there will still be work. And at that moment, when we're with him for the first time, the words which will be the result of a fruitful life lived out here, the words that will be a result of a fruitful life with recognition of God's purpose right here, right now, even with the desire to be in heaven with our

Lord, will be these, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things.

I will make you a ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy

Lord. So see, we're still going to be working. We're still going to have great things to do. He gave us a little bit of work here.

He's going to give us a lot more work later. It'll be glorious. It'll be like the Garden of Eden, except actually better than that, in the sense that it won't be by the sweat of our brow, but we will still be working, and He's preparing us for that work here.

We can't take that for granted. We can't let that sweep by. We have to think about these things as we live our lives out.

This very reality, this entails, what Jesus just said, entails that to live is

Christ. To live is to fulfill a unique mission in this life, and only you get to fulfill what you've been put here to do.

No one else can fill that void. No one else can do it. Only you can do that. Only I can do what the

Lord has put me here for. And the best way to prepare for dying well is to live well. The best way to prepare for finishing the race well like Paul did, and like he told us to do, is to live well.

You can't cross the finish line well if you don't run the race well. Doing our duty. Doing our duty that God has set before us today so that we may eventually enter into glory well.

We trust Christ. We love Him. We follow Him. We obey Christ. We preach Christ. We commune with Christ in this life, and therefore, to live is

Christ. Now I'd like to end with one last passage if you want to turn to Acts 20. This will be our final stop.

One last passage, just to really get the idea in our minds that the Christian life is an honor.

It's something that we should be pursuing every moment of every day. Even when it doesn't feel honorable. Even when we don't recognize the honor.

Maybe the honor isn't manifesting itself in the messy daily tasks that is required to get us essentially to the finish line.

It's still honorable, even still. Look at Acts 20, and let's start in verse 17.

Just a few verses here. Paul says, And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church.

This is Paul about to leave those at Ephesus for the last time. They'll never see him again. He calls the elders of the church.

In verse 18 he says, And when they were come to him, he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner

I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying and weight of the

Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house.

Think about the work, think about the labor and all of that. Verse 21, Testifying both to the

Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God in faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now behold, I go bound in the spirit on Jerusalem, not knowing what things will befall me when

I get there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, telling me that bonds and afflictions will be there.

But none of these things move me. This is what I want you to pay close attention to. None of these things move me, neither count

I my life dear unto myself that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which

I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

None of these things move me, not knowing what's going to come, but having an idea from the Holy Spirit himself that there will be affliction, that's for sure.

What will it look like? I'm not sure yet, but there will be affliction, there will be bonds. None of these things move me.

May we live like Paul. We need to understand the liberty, the freedom that we have in Christ unmoved by the possibilities of trials even unto death.

That's the way to live. That's the way to prepare for eternity with the Lord. It is an honor to live this life.

It's an honor to walk the Christian walk because for the believer to live is

Christ. Whether you're building institutions, whether you're mowing the lawn, whether you're changing a diaper, whether you are entering into the next phase of life, every single aspect of it is meaningful.

Every aspect of it has purpose. All of it is contributing to the end goal of the Lord's glorious return and our living in His eternal presence.

None of it's trivial. Not in God's eyes. It shouldn't be in our eyes either. And so though we yearn to be with the

Lord, though it is natural, and I would say good to have a desire to be with the

Lord right now, let's not forget that to live is Christ right now with what

He's given us. And that's what the Apostle Paul understood. We certainly have the capacity to live like that too.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this wonderful day. Thank you for bringing us together once again and giving us an opportunity to fellowship and to look at your word together and to see the practical application that it has in every aspect of our lives so that we have the ability to go out into the world not confused, not with any kind of murkiness, but rather with a clarity that is completely unique to those that have faith in your word.

And then understand that all of the instructions that we could have for peaceful, fulfilling, abundant living in this life right now, in the work that you have given us to do, it's all there.

All the instruction for it is there and everything that we do that is in line with those instructions are meaningful.

There's purpose. And Lord, I ask that you give us all that reminder each and every week that we live well beyond today that everything we're doing, none of it is trivial in your eyes and neither should it be in our own, but rather it is a small part, seemingly small part, of building your kingdom that you have given us to do.

Lord, we thank you again for bringing us together. We ask you to continue to be with us in our fellowship time in just a moment. Bless the meal we're about to have and we ask all these things in your name.