My Last Day Now

Resolutions fade fast, but desire for a deeper, steadier joy never goes away. We open a 13-week journey through Philippians by asking a bold question: what if joy doesn’t wait for better circumstances, but is formed within us as we live with perspective, purpose, and presence? Paul writes the happiest letter in the Bible while chained to a Roman guard, staring down an uncertain future. His courage reframes how we approach goals, habits, and setbacks, and it gives us a practical path to live today like it actually matters.

You’ll hear the unlikely origin story of the Philippian church and why that diverse beginning still speaks to modern communities. You’ll also see how Paul’s defiant joy is not denial; it’s a resilient posture that resists quitting. As we set the stage for a slow, verse-by-verse study, we invite you to align your days with what matters most and discover that joy isn’t found in what happens to you but formed in what God is doing within you.

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Goals And Quitter’s Day
• 2:58 Why We’re Really Chasing Habits: Joy
• 4:58 Launching A 13-Week Journey In Philippians
• 7:15 Philippi’s Origin And Diverse Launch Team
• 9:20 Paul’s Prison Chains And Defiant Joy
• 12:22 Live Today Like It’s Your Last
• 14:08 Joy Is Fierce, Not Fake Positivity
• 16:45 Practice One: Number Your Days
• 19:10 Worry Subtracts; Joy Trusts
• 21:18 Fasting, Fear, And Faith-Filled Outcomes
• 24:05 Do What You Can With Who You Love
• 26:05 Practice Two: Live On Purpose
• 29:00 Two Questions To Reclaim Your Day
• 31:00 Practice Three: Be Fully Present

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I have a question for you. Did anyone have any new goals this year? Come on. I'm a goal maker. I am someone who loves to make goals. I have goals in every aspect of my life. I love to do it. I think some of us have similar goals when the new year starts, though, right? I'm going to what? Join a gym is a big one that people do. I'm going to get in shape, is what people say. Another one, people say, I'm going to get financially straight this year. I'm getting out of debt. That's a big one. Maybe someone says, I'm going to start some good habits. And there's a lot of us that said, I'm also going to stop some bad habits. I know my biggest bad habit I need to stop. Can I be vulnerable? You ain't going to judge me, right? My biggest bad habit I need to stop is eating candy in my bed. Again, my small group is like, I thought you were healed from that. Nope. Nope. I'm a work in progress. Okay. But that's how it starts. We get excited for the new year. You know, we're excited for change, excited for new things happening. And there's something about that, something about the beginning of the year, that kind of we get this clean slate, right? This fresh start. But if we're honest, what usually happens, and we start off strong, then a few weeks later, the excitement phase, okay? Studies say 77% of people keep their goals or their New Year's resolutions for one week. 55% keep them for one month. Less than 10% are still going by the end of the year, and the average person quits on January 19th. It's literally called Quitter's Day. That's what it's called. So if you want to get out of a bad relationship, that's your day. Okay. So today I want to propose something to us as a church because even though the New Year's highlights our desire for better or that we're made for something more, kind of some of the struggles we have, this is something that we wrestle with in our daily lives throughout the year. We all want better routines, better habits, purpose-filled lives, knowing that our lives are making a difference by doing something that makes a difference with people who are making a difference. Because the truth is this in those habits, in those goals, in those relationships, I think we're all looking for something. We're all looking for something in our better habits and our better goals. And I'm not gonna give you the classic corny Christian thing, we're all looking for Jesus. We are, but there's something specific we're looking for. We're looking for joy. We're looking for joy in our lives. We want joy. We want what what we we want, what we want is a joyful or better yet, a joy-filled life. The reason we may want to lose weight or read more, spend less time on our phones, and spend more time actually looking people in the eyes, the people that we love, is because there is joy that comes with that. There's joy. So today we start an epic 13-week series. Guys, this is like the avatar of sermon series. Uh Lord of the Rings, whatever it is. This is an epic one, okay? 13 weeks. Uh, and we're gonna we're gonna journey as a church, and this will take us through 21 days of prayer. It would take us through Lent. We're gonna do Lent again this year. It'll take us all the way to Easter Sunday, okay? And so now I gotta I gotta be honest. We've never done anything like this at LVC before. And in my 15 plus years of preaching, I'd never preached a sermon series like this before. But I'm super excited for what God is gonna do, okay? So we're gonna start. And it's gonna be at least 13 weeks, but I'm gonna be honest with you guys. It could go longer. It could go longer because we don't have to rush through God's word. We don't have to rush through it, and church is not a consumer spot. Oh, what's the next topic the pastor's talking about? No, no, no. We're gonna read God's word, we're gonna get God's word in our heart, and we're gonna be people who choose joy and watch what God does in our lives. Okay? Okay, and so so this 13-week series is called an invitation to joy. So we're gonna look take a deep dive into the happiest books in the Bible, which was written in one of the places on earth. And my hope for you, my hope for our community, our hope for our church community is that everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers will learn how to choose joy. How to choose joy because joy is the invitation that God gives us all. He invites us into joy, but that does not mean we have to accept it. That doesn't mean we accept it, we have to accept it. So let me give you a little context, okay, of this, of the book, or better yet, the letter of Philippians. Philippians was written by the apostle around 60 through 62 AD, and he's right into the church that he planted. So he planted, he started this church in Philippi. The church today, um, northern Greece. Um, so so let me can I Bible nerd for a second? Is my mic going in and out? My mic going in and out. Am I good right now? All right, can you hear me? Alright, that's because I switched to Verizon. Never get old, never gets old. Same jokes. Okay. All right, okay, so Paul planted this church on his second missionary journey, somewhere around A.D. 49, 50. And get this, Philippi was the first city in Europe that was ever exposed to the gospel. And it took off. It took off. This is why, um, and here you go. One of my favorite parts about the church of Philippi was this, because it didn't have like the perfect launch team. They didn't do like a large launch church plant model where they had all their slogans and graphic designs and mass marketing. They didn't send out a hundred thousand-piece mail or nothing like that. They they didn't do anything like that. But what this team was made of, it was a surprising mix of people like this. Lydia, who was a successful businesswoman who loved God and her hoping her home. There was a slave girl who was completely demonically tormented. This is their launch team until Jesus set her free through Paul's ministry. And then there was a Roman jailer, a blue-collar guy who met Jesus through a miracle in the middle of a prison crisis. This was the launch team. This was the group. And that's the beauty of the Church of Philippi. A diverse, unlikely, only God could do it through these people kind of church. And the thing I love about the Church of Philippi, because it kind of makes me think of LVC, or a diverse group of people from all different walks of life coming together, and God just keeps doing great things every year. Like, hey, we survived COVID. Hold on, let me say it one more time. We survived COVID. And we're still here. Like we launched, right? We launched, we had six services before we had to shut down for over a year. And God is still faithful. So here you go. Paul loves this church. He loves the people, he loves the impact that this church is having in Rome for Jesus. But where do we find Paul writing this letter? He's writing in a Roman prison on house arrests. Now, house arrests in Rome is not like house arrests in today's culture. He didn't just have like an ankle monitor and he couldn't, he couldn't watch Netflix. There's no DoorDash coming to him. No, historians say that Paul had a literal chain attached to his wrist, and to the chain he was hooked up to a Roman soldier that would rotate every four to six hours. So imagine trying to pray, trying to sleep, trying to write, trying to think, trying to do your business with a Roman guard literally breathing over your shoulder. No privacy, no silence, no space. And, and he's stuck at a small rented house that he has to pay for. He has to pay for, he has to somehow earn funds to stay here. He can't leave. He can't go outside for a walk. He can't go to the market. He can't plant new churches. He can't go back and visit the people he loves. And he's waiting. On top of all of that, he's waiting for a trial that he was convinced that would lead him to his execution. You know, this is it. This is it. So every day he wakes up not knowing if today is the day he'll be executed or not. And it's in that space, chained up, watched constantly, limited, lonely, uncertain, that Paul writes the most joyful letter in the entire Bible. And it's like he's telling us circumstances don't get to decide my joy, but Jesus gets to decide my joy. The circumstances in my life don't decide my joy, but Jesus does. And if and if Paul can find joy chained up to a Roman guard, maybe you can find joy chained up to whatever you're chained up to today. Whatever heartbreak or brokenness or circumstance that you cannot control, maybe there's still joy in that thing. And so, for the upcoming weeks, we're really gonna dive into this kind of verse by verse of this letter, and we're gonna really pull out some things from this. But before we get to that, before we get to it verse by verse, I want to set the stage, okay? I want to set the stage for what we're gonna go what we're gonna be doing for the next 13 weeks. Because Paul is writing this letter to the church, and it's almost like he's doing this. Picture with me for Paul Paul is like waving his arms like crazy, yelling. He's like waving his arms. He's like, hey, listen, listen, I might not make it out of this one. I might not make it out. So so if I can just tell you one thing, church, if I could tell you one thing, just lean in and hear this one thing, because this might be the last thing I got to say. And if Paul stands right in front of local vineyard church today, he would say, LVC, lean in and let me tell you this, because it might be the last thing I have to tell you. This is what he would say. He would say, live today like it's your last day. Live today like it's your last day. Don't waste it, don't drift through it, don't sleepwalk your way through what really matters most. Because when you stop assuming you have tomorrow, you start actually showing up for today. Now, very quickly, though, this is not a bucket list message, though. This is not like if this is my last day on earth, I'm gonna jump out of a plane or something. No. Now it's not I'm gonna drain my savings account and do that. No, no, no, not a bucketless message. Paul, while chained up to a Roman guard, while awaiting possible execution, he says this for to me to live is Christ, and to die, or to die is gain. Now, in the coming weeks, I'm gonna expand on this verse in a one similar to it because I do believe Paul was struggling with anxiety, depression, and thoughts of, and thoughts that could be interpreted as suicidal. So we're gonna talk about that in the next couple weeks. But because Paul, because when Paul is talking about joy, he's not talking about just smile your way through it, even though you're dying on the inside. That's not what he's talking about. See, joy is not passive, joy is not the denial of reality, joy is defiant. Joy is the resistance to the urge to give up and to quit. Joy is bold, joy is brave and it is fierce, it's not fluffy, good vibes, it's not good energies, good vibe, I'm vibing good. No, no, no. Joy is my choice. When I want to give up, I'm not gonna give up. Joy is fierce, true joy, that deep gumption kind of joy, that deep rooted, unshakable kind of joy. That's the but God kind of joy. See, see, my life was going one way, but God showed up kind of joy. See, see, my I I I was dealing with some issues you can't believe, but God showed up. I got some pain in my life, and it feels like I'm tied up to a prison guard, but God. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. So, how did Paul get to that place where he is saying, if I'm alive, if I'm breathing, then it's for Jesus. But if it's not, then my confidence is in the fact that I will be with Jesus. How do you get to that place? So, in this life of the next, uh this life of the next, my goal is Jesus. How do we live like that? How do we live today like it's our last? I want to give us three ways that we can choose joy and live and live today like it's our last. The first one is this number your days. Number your days. Perspective creates joy. Now, this is important. You ready for this? Your days are numbered. You're like Jacob, that don't sound very encouraging. But honestly, it's one of the most encouraging things I can tell you. It's one of the most encouraging things I can say to you today. Um, because the psalm writer teaches us this. It says this, it says, Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. So we can't live our lives thinking we have all of our life to do the thing that we want to do with our lives. Psalm 90, and Paul says, To live is Christ and to die is gained. It's not about counting your days, but it's about making your days count. See, it's not morbid, it's clarifying, it's perspective. Because the truth is this whatever you think you have a lot of, you waste it. But whatever you don't think you have a lot of, you cherish it. Let me say that one more time. What you think you have a lot of, you waste it. But what you don't think you have a lot of, you cherish it. Wisdom is knowing I may not have tomorrow to do what I want to do tomorrow. So I need to give my entire attention to what God is doing right now. See, Paul knew something deep in his core, and it was and it was this commandment that Jesus gave us. Luke 12 says this. Jesus says, Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year or even a day? So if worrying adds nothing, but actually, check this out, but actually subtracts from your life, why would you worry about God's care of you? Think about it. Think about it. How does worry improve any area of your life? See, next week we start our 21 days of prayer and fasting. And and can I be bold today? I guess I can because I got the mic. But anyways, um I want to encourage us during the 21 days of prayer and fasting to do a food fast. Not go to fast food. You can fast fast food. That would be a good one. But to do a food fast. To say if it's the full day, if it's the Monday through Friday, what I do is I do Monday through Friday. I don't eat until dinner time. So I wake and I and my dinner time is normally around 5 30, especially on Tuesdays, I'm most excited because it's Taco Tuesday. If you don't eat tacos on Tuesday, what are you doing with your life? Anyways. Um so so anyways, so I encourage you to do it. But here you go. Last year, um, we were getting ready for 21 days of prayer and fasting, and Aaron was thinking to herself, I think I want to do the full food fast with you know with with you this year. I was like, oh yeah, that'd be good. And then she was like, But what it, but but maybe I shouldn't. And I was like, well, why not? And she's like, well, what if my blood sugar gets so low? What if like throughout the day my blood sugar is low, and then I then because my blood sugar is low, I'm on work calls and I'm not saying things correctly, and then because I'm not saying correct things correctly, I'm not doing my job right, and then I lose my job, and because I lose my job, we lose our house. Oh, because I did this 21 days of prayer. She was serious. Then I said, then I said to her, I said, Yeah, okay. Trying to validate feelings. Then I said, or what if God speaks to you in ways that he never spoke to you before? And guess what? She did the full, she did the fast, and God began to speak to her things about things about her life in ways that she never dreamed or imagined because of that. See, here you go. Worry would like to set up a whole plan for you how things aren't gonna work out. But joy, but when we choose joy, we begin to see that God can work through anything, that God can work through anything. And so, and so um I encourage she so worry subtracts, but joy asks. Worry stills without ever changing tomorrow. That's the thing about worry. You can worry all day, and your tomorrow is still gonna be the same. See, but to live is Christ. Listen, listen, you can better your life. You absolutely can. I want you to get this. I want you to get this. You can better your life, you can eat healthier, you can work out, you can go for a walk, you can read a book, you can get off your phone, you can turn off the news. Those things matter, they do, but hear me. You can better your life, but you cannot prolong your life. Jacob, bro, this ain't encouraging again. You can do all the right things, steward your body, steward your habits, but at the end of the day, you're not in control of the number of your days. And that shouldn't make you fearful, it should make you faithful, it should make you focused, it should make you alert because you don't control tomorrow, but you do control how you live today. So if you ask me, Jacob, if you had one more day to live your to live, what would you do? Well, to me, the answer is easy. I would go to Disney World. Come on. But I'm not going to Disney World riding this a small world by myself 42 times. No, I'm bringing my I'm bringing my wife and bringing my kids and bringing my family, my best friends. Why? Because I want to spend my day with I want to if I I want to spend my last day with what is most valuable to me. With what is most now again, I'm not talking about bucket lists here, so my illustration breaks down a little bit, but get but get what I'm saying. But I want you to get the point of this, friends. Are you spending your day putting first what is most valuable to you? Or are you spending your day just drifting? Drifting through. Let me just like expose the lie that so many of us believe. It's the one day lie. One day I'll get out of this toxic relationship. One day I'll go back to school and go after the dreams that God put in my heart. One day I'll forgive that person. One day I'll go to an AA meeting. One day I'll confront my addiction. One day I'll start serving. One day I'll fix my attitude. One day I'll be the parent God has called me to be. Church, look at me.

unknown: 18:33

Look at me.

SPEAKER_00: 18:34

You may never get one day, but you do have a two day. But you got this day, and this is the day the Lord has made. This is the day the Lord hasn't made. And we will rejoice and what and we will be glad in this day. And this day, because I I can't change what happened yesterday, and I can't control the future, but I can choose joy today. On this day. Today is the day you you can obey. Today is the day you can forgive. Today is the day you can break the chain. Today is the day you can take the step. Not one day, but today. So I'm gonna choose joy. I'm gonna number my days. I'm gonna live with perspective. Because joy isn't found in having more time. Joy is found in using the time I already have. Joy isn't formed somewhere out there in the future. Joy is formed right here, right now, inside of me. Joy isn't found in what happens to me. Joy is formed in what's happening within me. And it all starts with perspective. So second way we choose joy and live today like it's your last, you live on purpose. You live on purpose. You don't waste today on what does not matter. Paul said, for me to live is Christ. When your days are numbered, your priorities get laser sharp. And I don't know about you guys. If today was my last day, I don't think I would want to scroll on my phone. Scrolling. What you doing with your last day of life? Scrolling. Oh. What you watching? Cat videos? Oh. Yeah. It's good. I don't think that's how any of us would want to want to exit, you know? Watching cat videos. You don't drift. You don't waste. You don't delay. You get intentional. Paul is chained up, locked down. He doesn't know he gets another sunrise. So what does he do? He lives on purpose. He's using every breath for Christ, every moment, every conversation, every opportunity. He can't go anywhere, but he can still do something. He can't, he can preach to the guard. He can disciple visitors. He can write letters to churches. He can advance the gospel. This is purpose. This is clarity. This is joy. And here's our problem. Oftentimes, we're not living intentionally, we're living distracted. We're letting the wrong things drain the right things. And we're giving our best energy to the worst habits. We waste time on being cynical. We waste energy on anxiety. We waste days on unforgiveness. We waste hours scrolling. We waste emotions comparing. We waste joy by chasing everything that doesn't matter and everything that fades away. So if today was your last day, you wouldn't waste one second on any of that. If today was your last day, you wouldn't run towards distraction, you would run towards purpose. You would spend time with God, you would spend time with people you love, you will forgive, you would encourage, you would serve, you would love, you would make your day count. Because joy doesn't come from being busy, joy comes from being intentional. Now I want to get can I get practical? Let me get a little practical. There you go. Ask yourself these two questions. Ask yourself this. What's one thing that wastes my time? And then ask yourself the second question. What's one thing that strengthens my purpose? And this is your step. Here's your step. Do less of the first and do more of the second. Just do less of the it's not that hard. I'm gonna do less, I'm gonna do less TV time. I'm gonna actually spend time with my kids. I'm gonna get on the floor and play with them. You know what? I'm gonna do less of the thing that waste some time and do more of the thing that strengthens it. And this is where joy grows. Joy is not the product of a perfect life, joy is the product of a purposeful life. So number your days, live on purpose. And now here's one more thing. I think Paul shows us if today is your last day, don't miss this. Be fully present. Joy is where your feet are planted. Just where your feet are. Just be present. Be present right where you are. To live is Christ, meaning right now, right here in this moment, Paul is chained up. He can't go back, he can't go forward. He's literally stuck right where he is. And guess what? That's where he found joy. He can't change his past, he can't control his future, but he can choose to be fully present to God in the moment that he has. And that is why Philippians is the happiest book in the Bible, written in the saddest place on earth. Most people today aren't losing joy because of what's happening today. They're losing joy because what happened to them yesterday. And what might happen to them tomorrow. Regret stills your yesterday, anxiety stills your tomorrow, and distraction stills your today. And we are so distracted. We're so distracted. We've forgotten how to be present. We just scroll, scroll, notification, text, email, worry, stress, replay the past, forecast the future, but completely miss the moment God has given us right now. So what does it look like to be fully present? What does it look like? One, you can put the phone down at dinner. I'll just get practical. Man, guys, I almost got me a dumb phone this year. I might do it still. Because our phones, never mind. I'm about to get on a tangent there. But be present. Isn't this crazy to me when you think about our phones though? Like we be in a whole room with the people we love the most, but still on our phones. We be face to face with people, and the moment they get up to go to the bathroom at a restaurant, grab our phone. I hope I ain't missing out on something. Like, like guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, we gotta be present in the moment. You know, you know, we got okay. That was my tangent. Another thing about phones. I'm joking. Okay, I'm joking. But look people in the eyes, listen without rushing to respond. Slow down long enough to notice grace in the moment. Pray in the middle of the day, not just at the end of the day, not just in the beginning, but in the middle of your day. Start praying. Don't scroll past the people God has given you to live as Christ. To live as Christ. I can't change yesterday. I can't control tomorrow, but I can choose joy today. And I want to close with this little spoiler alert, okay? Paul, while in prison in Rome, does not die. He does not face execution, he does get free. He does get free, and he ends up living another four to five years, most scholars say. And he planted another church in that process. He was doing it. But imagine for me, while he was in that prison house of rest, they imagine if he lived every day thinking, well, this is it, so what does it matter? I'm gonna die any days now, so what does it matter that I do anything? I should just give up because it doesn't matter. I try to be faithful to God and not look at me. I'm I'm on house arrest next to this guy named Bubba. You know what does it mean? And the Hebrew name for Bubba is Bubba. Imagine if Paul spent those days just complaining. Imagine if he if he wasted them angry, imagine if he just curled up in his bitterness with playing in the past, stressing about the future. He could have wasted all that time, but he didn't. He chose joy, he lived on purpose, he was fully present to what God was doing and with the people in front of him. And because he chose joy from a prison cell, a letter came that changed the lives of billions of people, including our lives today. And this is where it hit me, church. If Paul didn't waste his days, why should I waste my days? See, you don't know how many days you have left, but you do have today. You don't want to wait for the perfect season, don't wait for the right moment, don't wait for things to feel easier. Choose joy today, in this moment, right where your feet are. And that's why. That's why I want to invite you. Not just to a message series, but to a whole journey of learning how to choose joy, how to choose joy. And so for the next three months, we're gonna walk slowly, intentionally, verse by verse through the book of Philippians, and we're gonna learn together how to become the kind of people who don't just talk about joy, but we actually live it out. Because joy was an invitation from God, and we're gonna accept it. We're gonna learn what it looks like to accept it. So, LVC, let's choose joy today. Let's find joy in this season, let's grow in joy as a church family, and let's walk into this new year believing. Joy isn't found in what happens to me, joy is formed in what's happening within me. And that, my friends, formation starts there. So, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy. Jesus, we thank you. That it was for the joy set before you, that you endured the cross, that you went to the cross for joy. And what was that joy? It was us. It was us. Us and our mess and our brokenness and our confusion and our frustration. You chose us. So Jesus, when we choose joy, we're saying we choose you, Jesus. We choose you. And I just feel like Holy Spirit saying to some people, just like the Apostle Paul, you feel chained up to something. Come, Holy Spirit. And you even said to yourself a few times, I'm never gonna do that again. But you find yourself doing the thing that you said you would never do again. And I just feel like the Holy Spirit is saying that he loves you. He's not mad at you. I just actually very vividly I have an image of God. He's not standing in the corner with his hands on his, you know, on his on his hips, looking at you like, I can't believe you did again. But he's reaching out to you with compassion. With compassion. He loves you. It's like there's some people in here that you've been dealing with some addictions for a long time. Holy Spirit is saying, You've done a good job learning how to survive in this life. Holy Spirit is saying, let me show you a better way to live. So come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Yeah, this there's a chain of anxiety. You're trying to move, you're trying to break free, but I mean it's just it's got you around the ankle. So I pray freedom in Jesus' name. Yeah, there's a big old chain of regret. I should have done this. I wish I never did that. I put my kids through that. So, Holy Spirit, we just pray grace and forgiveness. Grace and forgiveness. Today is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and I will be glad in this day. Come, Holy Spirit. Yeah, a chain of comparing myself to other people. That's why the Holy Spirit is saying, you are wonderfully and fearfully made in the image of God. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. So God, we say more of you. We say more of your your presence in our lives, Lord. We choose joy today, Lord. We don't deny our circumstances. But even in the hardest of circumstances, we choose you. We focus on you. We think about you. So we say, Come, Holy Spirit. More of you. We love you in this place today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's give God some praise in here.