SPEAKER_00: Good morning, First Baptist Wimberly.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Friday.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul thought a lot about death because he faced death on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23, he talks of imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death.
SPEAKER_00: Five times he received 40 lashes, three times he was beaten with rods, one time he was stoned, three times he was shipwrecked, with a night and a day adrift at sea, and he goes on and on with stories of experiences that most of us will never encounter.
SPEAKER_00: In Philippians 1, 18 through 26, which we will be looking at this Sunday, he is surely thinking of imminent death again.
SPEAKER_00: He is in prison and threatened with execution.
SPEAKER_00: Even if he were to be released, his enemies had plotted against him and were determined to rid themselves of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: But what makes Paul's comments in this Philippians passage so helpful is that he doesn't simply talk about dying, but as Sam Storms puts it, the way he talks about living in the light of dying.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to verses 20 through 23.
SPEAKER_00: As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
SPEAKER_00: For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_00: If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.
SPEAKER_00: Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell.
SPEAKER_00: I am hard pressed between the two.
SPEAKER_00: My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
SPEAKER_00: Paul had one ambition and one only.
SPEAKER_00: He passionately desired that Christ be honored in his body, whether in life or death.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the same idea we looked at in Psalm 90 a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Teaches to number our days.
SPEAKER_00: Memento mori.
SPEAKER_00: Life is a vapor.
SPEAKER_00: Paul experienced many memento mori moments where he was reminded that he could leave life tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: We glorify God in death by regarding it as gain over life.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you disregard life or that you fail to embrace it as a wonderful blessing from God.
SPEAKER_00: No, it means that you live life fully and fruitfully on mission for Christ in whatever season you find yourself in.
SPEAKER_00: Redeeming the time for the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Is there something that needs to change in your life so that you are living for Christ while you are here?
SPEAKER_00: And what needs to happen to remind yourself that death is a reality.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are, in fact, in Christ, it will be gained.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons, and I love being your pastor.