To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain
Message Notes
“If you’ve got nothing worth dying for, you’ve got nothing worth living for.”
Martin Luther King
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”
Jim Elliot
Missionary who died while evangelizing in Ecuador
“For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Apostle Paul
Philippians 1:19-26
“Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain,
and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.”
Paul’s current circumstances:
- Imprisonment & threat of death
- Opposition from false teachers & rivals
- Persecution of the Philippian church
“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.”
Philippians 1:29-30
Joy?
Living with an eternal perspective fuels our joy.
“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14
1. I Will Keep on Rejoicing Because it’s a Win-Win.
Verses 18-19
“Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms— to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Viktor E. Frankl
Author of “Man’s Search for Meaning”, and a survivor from several Nazi concentration camps
2. Life is Christ
Verse 20
“…so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by** death**.”
Verse 21
*“For to me, to live is Christ…”*
Verse 22
“If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.”
We Bring Life
All Decisions Through the Lense of Christ
3. Heaven is Better By Far
Verses 22-23
“Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”
Jesus and Heaven
”Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
C.S. Lewis
Do I really look forward to heaven?
The story of Pastor Stan’s “spiritual” lifetime friend, Terry Brown.
I am ready to go
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
John 14:1-3
“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4
“For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”