SPEAKER_00: Amen, church family.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, go to turn with me to Philippians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: You may already have it bookmarked there.
SPEAKER_00: While you're turning, I want to bring your attention to something.
SPEAKER_00: There was a card in your seat or you may have been handed as you walked in, and it says on there, who's your one?
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're coming into the Easter season, and this is one of those times of year in which people have their hearts especially open to possibly coming to church.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we want to do is be really intentional about that time.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that 15% of the people that you invite to church will come if you invite them?
SPEAKER_00: But if you have coffee or lunch scheduled with them after lunch, that number changes from 15% to 80%.
SPEAKER_00: That eight out of every 10 people that you schedule to have lunch with after church will come with you to church because they're desperate for community, because they want to make sure they're not going to be all alone, and they want to be able to have someone with whom they can experience the truth of God with.
SPEAKER_00: So would you begin praying about that?
SPEAKER_00: Would you begin praying about one person in your life or in your circle of influence that you could schedule over the next few weeks and you say, hey, would you come to church with me?
SPEAKER_00: After that, I want to take you to Casa Mexicana and, you know, burritos on me, right?
SPEAKER_00: Would you go ahead and start praying with that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord might use that to bring hope to someone who feels hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord might use that to bring someone into the light that's right now walking in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna we're gonna talk about that over the next three weeks, but I want you to go ahead and start praying about who your one could be.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, Philippians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna begin in verse 21 and we're gonna read through verse 30 together.
SPEAKER_00: God's word says this for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm 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: But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
SPEAKER_00: Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your joy 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.
SPEAKER_00: Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
SPEAKER_00: This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.
SPEAKER_00: For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray the Lord together.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, this morning we come and we sing together collectively, all we have is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we were running a hellbound race when our misery was interrupted by your redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, we come thankful, praising your name for what you've already done, recognizing that we are secure in you, that you have fastened us in your will, that we have been washed by your grace, that our future has been nailed down and verified for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we come and we ask you to reshape us into your image.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you to put us on mission in your call.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we do that without fear because we know what the future holds for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray this morning that you would work in the hearts of our people.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the truth is most people think we're nuts.
SPEAKER_00: And I can give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: In 2014, there was a doctor by the name of Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Kent Brantley.
SPEAKER_00: And he left behind a successful medical career, a wife, kids, to go on a short-term mission with Samaritan's Purse to Liberia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, at that time, Liberia was really ground zero for the Ebola epidemic that was running rampant through Africa.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Brantley, while there contracted Ebola.
SPEAKER_00: And when news began to spread that this missionary doctor sent from the States with Samaritan's purse had contracted Ebola, all kinds of opinions began to be shared.
SPEAKER_00: Anne Coulter wrote a scathing article in which she called Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Brantley idiotic.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, she would go on in the article to ask, why did Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Brantley have to go to Africa?
SPEAKER_00: The very first risk factor listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola, an incurable disease with a 90% fatality rate, is travel to Africa.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, for Coulter, she didn't see Brantley as heroic, as inspirational, as faithful, as courageous.
SPEAKER_00: She saw him as dumb.
SPEAKER_00: She saw him as irrational and as illogical.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: That if you're gonna run after Jesus with all of your heart, if your children are gonna run after Jesus with all of their hearts, if you and your wife together are gonna pursue Jesus in your relationship, people are gonna think you're crazy too.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna think that you're living an irrational and illogical life.
SPEAKER_00: That when you decide that you're not going to date the beautiful girl because her heart doesn't beat for Jesus, it's not gonna make sense to people.
SPEAKER_00: When you make the decision that you're gonna turn down the promotion because you fear it'll interfere with the ministry that you feel called to, people aren't gonna understand that.
SPEAKER_00: When all of a sudden you begin to make decisions with your finances and decisions for about your parenting and your kids begin to prioritize the church over the team, it's not gonna register with people.
SPEAKER_00: They're all gonna think that we're nuts.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see this morning is that there is a logic behind Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Brantley's life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a logic that has stood behind the lives of Christians throughout the millennia.
SPEAKER_00: It's the logic that has justified in many teenagers' minds why they would choose a life that is less popular than the one that they could have.
SPEAKER_00: It's a logic that is justified why parenting philosophies for Christians have often looked very different than the parenting philosophies that have found in the culture.
SPEAKER_00: It's a philosophy that lies behind a logic that lies behind the philosophy of retirement that many Christian seniors have that looks very different than the kind of retirement that those who are their former coworkers have.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is going to show us is that it's the logic that lies behind his life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a logic that helps him to make sense of the realization that though he is in prison, he has not wasted his life.
SPEAKER_00: That what we see here in Philippians chapter one is the logic behind the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And I think what Paul shows us is that it's only Christians that really think completely rationally.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how the logic goes.
SPEAKER_00: First, we recognize that we want a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: We want a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: I would say to want a life without loss is really the only rational and logical way to live.
SPEAKER_00: Who on earth wants to take this precious gift that we've been given in our lives and realize that we've squandered it when we come to the end of them?
SPEAKER_00: And this is the argument that culture makes against Brantley.
SPEAKER_00: That what she would say is that everything that he is doing is a loss, that he's risking the loss of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's risking that his kids might lose their father, his wife might lose their husband, his practice might lose their physician, the United States might lose millions of dollars in trying to care for him and treat him.
SPEAKER_00: For her, as she adds up the moves and the decisions that he's made to go to Africa, to go to Liberia, to treat the ill, to minister on behalf of Christ, all of it to her feels like a net loss.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like a net loss.
SPEAKER_00: But Christians aren't trying to lose.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Brantley isn't trying to lose.
SPEAKER_00: Paul isn't trying to lose.
SPEAKER_00: There is a logic and a rationality behind it that she just can't see or understand.
SPEAKER_00: See, the difference between Coulter and Brantley is the way that they figure gains and losses.
SPEAKER_00: The way they figure gains and losses.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the difference behind Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the difference in why Paul's ministry has not been wasted, even though his ministry headquarters is a prison cell.
SPEAKER_00: So for us, Paul is summarizing the logic that lies behind his life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the logic that has been behind Corey Tinboom's life when, because of her Christian conviction, she was put in a German concentration camp.
SPEAKER_00: It's the logic that was behind Jim Elliott's life, when he was murdered by the Ecuadorian people that he went as a missionary to try to reach.
SPEAKER_00: And the logic goes like this for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_00: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_00: Then, in other words, what Paul is saying is that he recognizes that Christ himself is the great and supreme treasure in all of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And what he realizes is that because Christ himself is the great treasure in all of the universe, then the more of Christ that he has, the more of Christ that he knows, the more of Christ that he enjoys, the fuller his life will be.
SPEAKER_00: So in his thinking, in his thinking, that even if in the short term I have to incur some suffering, even if in the short term I have to incur some hardship, because I believe the resurrection is true, because I believe the resurrection gives me a new life now, an eternal life forever, then what that means is that I can live my life every day and every second, regardless of the circumstances, figuring out how can I know Christ better, how can I enjoy Christ more fully?
SPEAKER_00: How can I share Christ with others?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that I can store up for myself more treasures with Christ in his kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, if it goes beyond life and I'm faced with death and hardship brings me to the very end of my life, then what I can know is not only is Christ with me in life, but then in that moment I receive my ultimate prize because I am ushered into the presence of Christ immediately.
SPEAKER_00: So for Brent for Coulter, she looks at Brantley's life, she looks at Paul Paul's life, she would look at many of our lives, and she would say, All of this seems like a net loss.
SPEAKER_00: All of this seems like a waste.
SPEAKER_00: But for Paul, he looks at his prison and he looks at his chains and he looks at his ministry and he looks at his cost, and then he looks at his treasure.
SPEAKER_00: And for him, all of it is a net gain.
SPEAKER_00: None of it has been lost at all.
SPEAKER_00: See, for Coulter, her equation, and it's probably the equation of your classmates, it's probably the equation of your coworkers and your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Her equation is if I die, I lose.
SPEAKER_00: If I suffer, I lose.
SPEAKER_00: If I miss out, I lose.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna spend all of my life running away from death.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna spend all of my life doing everything that I can to make sure that I don't suffer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna spend all of my life running after the things that I want to make sure that I don't miss out on.
SPEAKER_00: That in other words, what she calls for us to do is to cling with everything that we have to the short-term gains that we can have here in the world, because in her mind we are assured of a long-term loss.
SPEAKER_00: But y'all, if the resurrection is true, if Christ has actually been raised from the dead, if shame has actually been overthrown, if our sin has actually been canceled, if we have actually been reconciled with Christ, if death has actually lost, that's the idiotic way to live.
SPEAKER_00: That's the irrational way to live.
SPEAKER_00: That for Paul, his philosophy has been legitimized by the resurrection so that what he is able to say is that for me, nothing is lost.
SPEAKER_00: All of it is gained.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what I do, no matter where I go, no matter what incur what I incur, no matter what suffering I know, all of it for me is a is a gain because what I have is in Christ, and what can be increased can only be increased in Christ, and none of it can be taken away from me.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jim Elliott wrote what he wrote that he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Bonhoeffer, who himself died in a concentration camp, would say that when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus in Matthew chapter 13, he's telling the parable of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that the kingdom is like a field.
SPEAKER_00: He says the man is walking through the field, and when he comes through the field, all of a sudden he discovers that in that field there is a treasure, and that treasure is worth more than all of the rest of his life, all added together.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, in his joy, in his joy, he goes and he sells all that he has so that he can purchase the field.
SPEAKER_00: And purchasing the field, he doesn't miss a single thing that he's lost.
SPEAKER_00: It's the recognition, it's the recognition that in Christ we have the only treasure that we actually need, in Christ we have all that will actually satisfy us.
SPEAKER_00: So here's Coulter.
SPEAKER_00: And Coulter is asking all of us, why on earth would anybody live this way?
SPEAKER_00: Why on earth would anybody live this way?
SPEAKER_00: But then Paul rebuts her.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul would say, if the resurrection is true, why on earth wouldn't everybody live this way?
SPEAKER_00: That there is no loss so long as we are secured in the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so that means that the way that we figure gains and losses has a lot to say about who we believe Jesus to be and what we believe Jesus to have accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: So when I ask you, how is it that you figure gains and losses in your life?
SPEAKER_00: You can Paul tells us explicitly how he does it in chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter three, he says, whatever gain I had, I counted it as loss.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what Paul says is whatever gains I've had, however nice my house has been, and however nice a house I've lost, however prominent my career has been, and however prominent a career I have lost, however important and popular my name has been, and whatever popularity it has cost me, I count all of it as rubbish, as garbage, as refuse, as trash in comparison to what all I have gained in the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That I, when I look at my life, see nothing but a net gain because I have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if I have Jesus and nothing else, I have more than I could ever want.
SPEAKER_00: But what about you?
SPEAKER_00: How do you measure gains and losses in your life?
SPEAKER_00: How do you measure gains and losses when all of a sudden the difference is between having a date on Friday night or staying at home on Friday night?
SPEAKER_00: How will you measure gains and losses?
SPEAKER_00: What about when the promotion or the career opportunity that you've been looking for comes along, but it means that you're gonna have to compromise on your Christian ethics?
SPEAKER_00: How in that moment will you measure gains and losses?
SPEAKER_00: What about when it comes down to your family's devotion to Christ and your child having the opportunity to get the scholarship that they've always wanted?
SPEAKER_00: How in that moment will you measure gains and losses?
SPEAKER_00: That will indicate to us how we actually value the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It will indicate to us what we actually believe about the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For us, it's only rational that we want a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: But then the realization that Paul comes to is that when we have Christ, we actually have a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: That you have to understand, Paul in Philippians, we've talked about how joy is a major theme in the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Paul in Philippians is not chasing after joy.
SPEAKER_00: He believes that he already has joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's already secured, it's already nailed down for him.
SPEAKER_00: This is a key to unlocking, I think, the entirety of the book and the entirety of the logic that he's putting forth here for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That in his mind, joy is not something he's running after, it's not something that he's striving for, it's not something that he's hoping for, it's something that's already been nailed down for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that's that's already secured for him.
SPEAKER_00: That his thinking goes like this if in Christ I have nothing but gain, and everything that I lose in pursuit of him, I count as gain, then everything in my life is nailed down and secured too.
SPEAKER_00: That means that there's no loss that I can incur that is actually gonna bring net harm to me and negative to me and detriment and deprivation to my life because I have the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He presents this to us uh in the form of a hypothetical.
SPEAKER_00: There's a hypothetical here in verses 22 and 23 that he's assuming that we're asking and that he's answering on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: His assumption is that we would ask him while he's sitting there in that prison, well, Paul, do you think you're gonna get out or do you think you're gonna be executed?
SPEAKER_00: And if you think you're gonna be executed or you think you're gonna get out, if you're kind of going back and forth on that question, Paul, what would you prefer as a man of faith?
SPEAKER_00: Now, for Coulter and for your coworkers and for your classmates and for your neighbors, the answer to this question is obvious.
SPEAKER_00: It's a dumb question to even ask.
SPEAKER_00: Like, give me my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to lose my life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I have.
SPEAKER_00: But for Christians, it's a more nuanced answer.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because we're suicidal.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not suicidal.
SPEAKER_00: Christians who hold to the truth of the Bible are rigorously pro-life.
SPEAKER_00: Like we are we are not suicidal people, but but the answer's more nuanced because we we recognize not that we want to lose our lives, but that we only have good options to choose from.
SPEAKER_00: That's where Paul's at.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's like, all right, here's option A.
SPEAKER_00: Option A is they execute me.
SPEAKER_00: They take me out, they take my head off, and immediately with one swipe of the sword, I am ushered into the presence of the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's a win for me, man.
SPEAKER_00: He says that option B over here is I get to hang out with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And I like hanging out with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: And if I get to hang out with y'all, you know what we're gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna preach Jesus, we're gonna enjoy Jesus, we're gonna worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna teach you about Jesus, we're gonna reach people for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, option A, go be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Option B, hang out with y'all and enjoy Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's no bad app, no bad option from which I can choose.
SPEAKER_00: Both of those are good, and so now my joy is secure.
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that?
SPEAKER_00: See, y'all, that's what freedom is.
SPEAKER_00: That's what freedom is.
SPEAKER_00: Christian freedom is the recognition that we only have good options to choose from.
SPEAKER_00: There is no bondage when you can't choose a bad option.
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we are torn between two worlds, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: That's tough.
SPEAKER_00: This world is hard, uh, awaiting the reality of death that lingers over all, that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that the good news of the gospel says that in either world, the truth is we get to enjoy Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is gonna be with us in either one.
SPEAKER_00: That if we're living here day in and day out, we are abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That Christ secures us.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: I walk with you, I give you my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I make sure that moment by moment you know I am the friend that sticks closer than a brother.
SPEAKER_00: And the moment that you step out of this life and into the next, the moment you cross the threshold of eternity, immediately you are brought into my presence so that now you can enjoy the fullness of Christ forever.
SPEAKER_00: You begin the first moments of forever and the glorious, transcendent glory and majesty of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: And y'all, that's why we're not fools to get on airplanes and fly to Liberia in the midst of an Ebola-ridden land.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're not fools to send our teenagers on mission trips to Mexico.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're not fools to forego maximizing our earning potential to be able to glorify the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're not fools because our gains have already been secured on our behalf by the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The worst case scenario that this world can bring about in my life and in your life is to bring about the best case scenario in my life, in your life.
SPEAKER_00: They can bring about death, yes, that's Paul's point.
SPEAKER_00: But if they bring about death, you know what that brings about?
SPEAKER_00: It brings about glory.
SPEAKER_00: That there's no sword, there's no weapon that they can come against me.
SPEAKER_00: That we genuinely are what Romans 8 chapter says, when we are more than conquerors, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You see, brothers and sisters, when your gains are secure, there's no risk in your investment.
SPEAKER_00: When your gains are secure, there's no risk in your investment.
SPEAKER_00: So you can spend your life for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can give your life for Jesus, you can offer and dedicate your children to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can run after Jesus even at great expense personally in this life, in the here and now, because what you know, what you know is that all of it is in an investment in the life hereafter.
SPEAKER_00: So there is ultimately no expense that you're going to incur, only an investment made in a greater future.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about what this means for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think it means some really practical things.
SPEAKER_00: I think it means that you can probably forgive your dad, even though he abandoned you.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't need his vindication, you don't need anything from him at all.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, you have security.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you don't have to keep swiping your credit card, you don't have to keep taking out another auto loan.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like you don't need all of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you have Christ, you have a greater treasure than those things already.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to keep trying to find it with the swipe of a card and putting yourself deeper into bondage.
SPEAKER_00: It means that if you can't swing the exotic vacation that's Instagram awesome, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: You can enjoy the staycation at home where your family plays Yahtzee all week.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need Maui.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I hope you get there, but you don't need Maui.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you have Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You have Christ, and he's here.
SPEAKER_00: Now and he's here tomorrow and he's here forever and it's secure.
SPEAKER_00: You could go and you could uproot your life and you could move to China.
SPEAKER_00: And you could go to an unreached, unengaged people group that nobody ever has ever heard of that doesn't know anything about you, and you could disappear from the annals of history.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Your significance is not less, it is greater.
SPEAKER_00: Because why?
SPEAKER_00: You have Christ, and Christ is secure.
SPEAKER_00: You can evangelize your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know that there are social costs involved, and it creates awkwardness, and you you don't know what the reaction is gonna be, and you can invite the who's your one, like you can do all the why because you have Christ, and Christ is secure.
SPEAKER_00: Your investments have been nailed down, there are no risks to you.
SPEAKER_00: That you wanted a life without loss, and what you now have in Christ is a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: So you might as well go out and live like you can't lose.
SPEAKER_00: I think if Paul was to sit down with Coulter and have a conversation with her, there's probably a lot of things that he would he would say.
SPEAKER_00: But I think maybe one of the first things that he would talk to her is about the logical difference between an investment and a loss.
SPEAKER_00: A short-term investment, sometimes it feels like a loss, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you ever see what's coming out of your retirement or out of your uh, you know, your pay stub to go to retirement, sometimes you're like, man, that would be pretty nice to get me through right now.
SPEAKER_00: I need some groceries, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I need a transmission, like whatever the thing is, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it can feel like a cost.
SPEAKER_00: But what Paul recognizes is that short-term investments are just that.
SPEAKER_00: They're investments.
SPEAKER_00: They aren't loss.
SPEAKER_00: They aren't losses.
SPEAKER_00: They are they are living for something that's headed down in the future.
SPEAKER_00: They're about a gain that you haven't yet obtained, but that you're looking forward to.
SPEAKER_00: They're about the security of where you're headed, not just about what you're experiencing in the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: This is how Paul understands his circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: This is how Paul understands where he is, is he recognizes, yeah, like if Paul was drawing this up, he wouldn't be in prison.
SPEAKER_00: If Paul was drawing this up, his life wouldn't be under threat.
SPEAKER_00: If Paul was drawing all this up, he'd be hanging out, barbecuing with the Philippians, telling old stories and teaching them the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Like if Paul was drawing it up, that's how it would all go.
SPEAKER_00: But the way Paul views the losses that he's incurred is he views them as investments in the future.
SPEAKER_00: That in Christ, his gains are already secured.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that he can do is actually compound those gains with the interest of prices paid, of investments made, so as a result, now he can go and he can begin to live his life for other people.
SPEAKER_00: That what Paul recognizes is because he is secure in Christ, and his future is secure in Christ, and his gains are secure in Christ, that he can actually afford to live his life not for himself, but for others.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you how he frames that up.
SPEAKER_00: Here in verse 20, we didn't read verse 20, it kind of sets a theme for chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: And what you see is that he says, 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.
SPEAKER_00: You ever notice that?
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting phrase, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: In my body, whether by life or by death.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that correlates with what he's saying in our passage in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: He says, If I am to live in the flesh, that's another way to say, in the body.
SPEAKER_00: That means fruitful labor for me.
SPEAKER_00: Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell.
SPEAKER_00: So so, in other words, what Paul is looking at here is he's saying, I'm not gonna be one of those American Christians that says, I love Jesus in my heart, I care about Jesus in my heart, you just can't tell by looking at my life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not gonna be one of those kinds of Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Paul recognizes that the new covenant ideal, the new covenant realization is the transformation in the life of the believer, so that what's happening in my inner life works its way out into my outer life.
SPEAKER_00: That what's transforming in my heart, transforming in my nature, transforming in my affections is actually being lived out practically in my body, in the flesh, which, by the way, is lived out how?
SPEAKER_00: In acts of service to others.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all with you all.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: In the body for what?
SPEAKER_00: Your progress and your joy.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm pretty sure I'm getting I'm busting out of this joint, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, like I'm pretty sure I'm springing the I'm springing the prison.
SPEAKER_00: And when I spring the prison, you know what I'm gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back doing exactly what I was doing that got me thrown in prison in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not afraid, I'm not scared, I'm not trying to secure my own joy.
SPEAKER_00: My joy I already have, it's already nailed down for me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not worried about my progress.
SPEAKER_00: I'm growing in the Lord, I'm abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: My future is already secure.
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm gonna serve the Lord, if the Lord is gonna bring me out, that means my body is for some earthly good.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever earthly good that is, I'm gonna use it to pursue your joy and your progress.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're seeing is how Paul applies the security that he has in Christ in his everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that Paul applies the security that he has in Christ in his everyday life is that he recognizes that now he can afford not to worry about his current circumstances, not to worry about his current pleasures, not to worry about temporal things that might satisfy temporal ambitions, but rather he can now afford to live for the joy and the submission or the progression of others.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, when you think about it, this is the only real rational way for him to live.
SPEAKER_00: There's no use for him working for his own joy, he already has his own joy.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to keep working at it.
SPEAKER_00: There's no use for him to sit and focus on his own progress.
SPEAKER_00: His progress is living out for the good of others.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul shows us is that the human mind can only think really rationally when the human mind is secured and safe and feels at peace.
SPEAKER_00: You think about this, you know this is true.
SPEAKER_00: That the only time that you think really rationally is when you don't have to be Facebook famous and get all the likes, that when you don't need the person that you're talking to to think well of you and to be impressed by you, when you don't have to have uh the job that you're you're you're interviewing for, when, when suddenly every moment that you meet another person, it's not about networking, it's not about resume building, it's just about loving them and knowing them.
SPEAKER_00: That when you drain the bias out of life, now you can begin to think rationally.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where Paul is.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I I have no other, I'm totally secure, I'm totally safe.
SPEAKER_00: So when I think rationally about what I'm supposed to do, what I'm supposed to do is to live for the glory of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm living for the glory of Jesus by pursuing your joy and your progress.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a real sense, I think, in which what Paul is asking all of us is, are you living rationally or are you living irrationally?
SPEAKER_00: That's how I understand him to apply it.
SPEAKER_00: I understand verses uh 127 through 30 to be really him applying the logic of his life to our lives, saying this is how it ought to live.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's he's looking at us and he's saying, Are you gonna live rationally or are you gonna live irrationally?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna live in light of the realization that your gains have been nailed down, that your future is secure?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna live in light of the reality that that nothing can be taken away from you?
SPEAKER_00: And any loss that you've incurred here is not a loss, but well, if you're gonna live that way, then stand firm together in one spirit with one mind.
SPEAKER_00: Strive side by side to know Christ, to make Christ known, to live on mission for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid in anything.
SPEAKER_00: You're safe.
SPEAKER_00: There's that's irrational fear, that's illogical fear.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has nailed you down, Christ has secured you, for it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, that you can go on and you can bear the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Bonhoeffer says.
SPEAKER_00: If he calls a man, he bids him come and die.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you can lay down your life because it's reasonable.
SPEAKER_00: When you lay down your life, what does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He takes it up again.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's saying, how are you living your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you living your life rationally or irrationally?
SPEAKER_00: Are you living your life from the security of Christ or from the insecurity of earth?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that you're going about your life?
SPEAKER_00: Never stop to think, how is it that you would live if you were actually invincible?
SPEAKER_00: Like these are the questions that our children ask.
SPEAKER_00: These are the questions that we asked when we were growing up.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think all of us are so fascinated with superheroes.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what would it be like to not worry about speeding bullets coming at us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what would it be like to know that we could outrun any problem that we face?
SPEAKER_00: What would it be like to know that we are impervious to the struggles of other people?
SPEAKER_00: What would that feel like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a real sense in which what Paul is saying is that for the believer, we we are not invincible.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't want you to live that way.
SPEAKER_00: But our gains are.
SPEAKER_00: Our gains are invincible.
SPEAKER_00: Our future is invincible, our position is invincible, our identity is invincible, our future is invincible.
SPEAKER_00: So for us to live in fear of a little suffering, for us to live in fear of what this world can hold on to us when we have Christ and the prize of Christ awaiting us, that's like Superman being afraid of heights.
SPEAKER_00: It's irrational, it's illogical, it makes no sense at all.
SPEAKER_00: So here's Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, I want you to take the security that you have in Christ, and I want you to apply it to the reality of your own life.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is that means that now you can afford to live for the good of other people.
SPEAKER_00: You can afford to live for the joy of other people.
SPEAKER_00: You can afford to be an evangelist at FedEx.
SPEAKER_00: There might be costs incurred, but there are no costs incurred here that aren't investments in what lays ahead.
SPEAKER_00: You can afford to raise your family in a different kind of way.
SPEAKER_00: I know it feels like your children are getting behind, but what feels behind in the world is ahead in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You can afford to date differently than the way the world dates.
SPEAKER_00: I know that it feels lonely, but but there is not one moment in which you are actually alone, and there is not one moment of faithfulness that will be wasted ever.
SPEAKER_00: That now you can afford to live on mission for Christ because you have been secured in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You can afford to live for the good of the body of Christ because you are secured in Christ, that you wanted a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus gave you a life without loss.
SPEAKER_00: And so now, now, brothers and sisters, you ought to live like you can't lose.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray the Lord together.