We turn in the Bible this morning to the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians. And I thought that it would be a good time for a break in Genesis. I'm glad no one told me to take a break, but I thought it would be a good time for a break. Philippians is found on page 1248 in your pew Bible, 1248. And we will read together, beginning at verse, halfway through verse 18, to the end of the chapter. Philippians chapter 1, beginning halfway through verse 18, where it says, and this is God's word. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all 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. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for 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. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, 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. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. I don't know how much you've given thought to the makeup here of the Escondido URC. I wonder how we're perceived as a church in terms of ages. Are we perceived as an old church? What is the perception of the Escondido URC? I went through some of the ages this past week, and here's what I found out. In our hundreds, we have one. In our 90s, we have 10. We lost four this year. In our 80s, we have 28. One lost this year. In our 70s, we have 44. In our 60s, 46. In the 50s, 71. The 40s, 55. The 30s, 32. The 20s is between 70 and 80. The teens is 54. And under 12 is 64. Contrary to perspective, that's a pretty evenly proportioned church, isn't it? As a matter of fact, that's a sign of a really healthy church. When you have all ages dispersed throughout, It's kind of a bad thing when you see models where there's just one age group making up a church. But here's the thing, if I may be so bold today. When you have 83 people, 70 and above, within 10 years, this church is going to change a lot. Change a lot. There is in front of you a generation that is going very fast. Within 15 years, this church is going to be a lot younger. And I don't know how much you've given thought to that or thought about that. And I have to say up front that I'm actually saddened by that thought. That actually distresses me a little bit because I believe we're going to lose what is the rock of a generation that we don't think about a lot, that we don't appreciate as we should. And it's a rock. It's a pillar, that generation. And I'm not sure that we've considered what the Lord has really demonstrated before us in this generation. The younger generations always think they know best. And do they really ever stop and they look at that rock of a generation that's in front of us that the Lord has worked in for so many years, and do they ask the right questions as they should? I want to consider this morning with you from the book of Philippians, and I thought it was a good time to pause in light of deaths that are happening, light of events in the life of the church, anniversaries that are celebrated, all sorts of these different things that take place in the life of the church, and to pause and to think about the Christian's perspective in life and in death, which has the goal this morning to encourage the older generation with purpose, but also the younger generation as they witness the older generation go out right in front of us. And that there would be a goal here that I want and have is that there would be a strong, young generation of young people and people who continue here in the Escondido United Reformed Church with the kind of sacrificial life that we have seen witnessed before us in that generation that I've just referenced. The fact is, we all really struggle to understand purpose in life, purpose in life and in death. And because of that, because of a lack of understanding that properly, my guess is if I went around and surveyed this morning, there are a lot of you that don't think about death or fear death. We all struggle with that. We all struggle with, well, how's that going to go? I really don't want to go through the process of it. I have all my list of things that I don't want to happen to me. One is an airplane crash. But I was thinking, you know, I've seen enough of this in my time as a pastor. From young children getting cancer and dying, to reading about my favorite old writer, William Perkins, who was so gifted and had produced just volumes of works that by, it strikes me that by the age of 43, one day he gets a stone. A stone. And it was so painful, he dies at the age of 43 with his wife expecting and a child he would never know. 43. I remember when as a young child, and it was all brand new to me, when the news came back, how it affected my parents, when my grandfather received the news of cancer, the effect that it had on my grandmother. And I remember my grandfather's statement to my father, I just don't understand why this way. He was young. He was 62. And as I take up this subject this morning, that even as Christians, we really don't know how to deal with this enemy of death as we should. And that's something that Paul is helping these Christians to understand. I mean, even the philosopher Francis Bacon once said that men fear death as children fear the dark. And who wants to face it? we all know that it can hit at the most unexpected times and life can be going so well and all of a sudden you know it strikes somebody we never would expect it to strike and it just takes the wind out of our sails the whole community is just hit hard and we're reminded everyone hit is gets hard and we're reminded about how wrong everything really is and you can't go through something like that without a great pause for a moment to reflect upon the larger questions of life and of death. How is the Christian to think about death? How can we approach death in confidence? And what should it do to our perspective about the days that God has given? And even when he tells us to number those days, to think that every single one of those days is numbered. You know, the apostles struggled with these things. We're not alone in this. There are things that we'll never have the answer to in this life as to the whys. We know that. Why certain things happen the way they do. But when it came to death itself, even though they didn't often grasp the whys and why things happened and knowing that God's ways are just beyond ours, we'll never fully grasp that. They did learn to think about death and approach it in a way that challenged their entire outlook about life. There's no one who understood this better from the apostles, I believe, than the apostle Paul. What we have in the book of Philippians is a church full of struggles. This is a church that was full of confusion and struggles, division, but they were really struggling because they were suffering for the gospel. Suffering. And they just didn't understand that. They didn't get that. They didn't know, why did it have to be like that? That's been a great confusion for Christians. You know, why suffering when we have a Lord who's on the throne and we preach that and we say that the Lord's on the throne. Why that? And when just a mere thought, he can deal with it or take it away and he doesn't. And so we're often perplexed about things. And what you have here in those perplexed moments is a particular church that is entirely perplexed about these questions. And Paul is doing something very pastoral here. Paul is opening up himself personally to this church. And he's providing them an example as an apostle of how he faced these things, how he dealt with these things, how he approached them. And Paul, if you know anything about the life of the apostle, the man had tremendous sufferings in his life. I mean, you know he was given this thorn in the flesh, and nobody knows what it was. But this thorn in the flesh was so bad, he calls it a messenger of Satan to torment him. It punched him in the face. And it was so hard for him that he was on his knees pleading with the Lord to take it away. And the Lord didn't do it. And just before that, he describes his life. five times i received at the hands of the jews 40 lashes less one three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times i was shipwrecked a night and a day i was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers dangers from robbers danger for my own people danger from gentiles danger in the city danger in the wilderness danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst often without food in cold and exposure and apart from other things there's this daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches and pastors know that pressure this was his life This was his life. And he's writing to the Philippians and lo and behold, guess where he is? Stack it up. It's prison. How does it get any worse? None of this makes sense, of course. Here's the apostle to the Gentiles and he needs to be out and he's stuck in prison at the moment. Isn't there more power than this to the Christian life? Isn't there something more to it than this? Paul's about ready to go in trial in Rome and he doesn't know he thinks there's a strong possibility he's going to be free he doesn't really know he knows that he knows there's the possibility of a terrible execution and in fact he will be executed down the road martyred paul looks at this church struggling and he gives perspective in all of this uncertainty and what he knows is an impending death. He just doesn't know how. He says something in verse 19 I want everyone to see. If you have your Bibles open, you should have your Bibles open. Yes, and I will rejoice. Did you hear that? I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance. And you stop and you say, are you kidding me? What planet are you on? They must have said, how do you know it's going to turn out for your deliverance? You have no idea. God's not told you it's going to turn out for your deliverance. God's not told you you're going to get out of this mess. He sits in prison and he goes farther. In fact, in my hope of this deliverance, there is absolutely no way I will be ashamed. I'm not going to be let down in life. Nothing will let me down. And you say, is that Joel Osteen? I mean, come on, what is that? Well, far from. Because Paul is suffering. And Christians today don't have a strong view of suffering. He doesn't know where his next meal is going to come from. Which of you have gone through that? All he has is the shirt on his back. You realize in prison, it's not like America. They feed you well in America. You didn't get food. People had to bring it to you. Eventually, it's going to be crucified upside down. I won't be ashamed. i'm going to rejoice in it all i know there'll be deliverance and you stand back and you're struggling with is this kind of delusional you know or maybe paul's being unrealistic about life and here's where we're challenged because i speak from my own experience how quickly i fall apart when the least thing goes wrong and when we look around at everything happening and all of the what seems to be everything going to hell in a handbasket or our hearts sink because of this and that and you feel like like um giving up or we feel like it's all too much and hopes are dashed to the littlest of things what gives in philippians chapter one i what gives in philippians one why is paul saying this paul is not writing to exalt himself that that's the thing some might read and say well this seems very self-exalting no no he's saying this to help the church because in every circumstance he will say i have learned by the end of the book to be content i don't care what it is i've learned that i've been trained in that i know how to abound i know how to be a base in every single possible circumstance i've learned to be content why is he saying that because he's saying this is yours too dear christians chores and here's where we're challenged sometimes our idea of deliverance is not the lord's is it the answer to this immense problem for real life suffering and hardship had to do with his pursuit in the midst of these hardships here paul is really presenting for us an entire perspective about christian life he's giving us an entire perspective it's a perspective that that you never achieve yourself you never comes natural to us but he's giving us a way and something special for the christian that the spirit gives he's giving them a way of getting into the mind of one of christ's apostles to see how they dealt with what was seemingly an impossible life to get through and so what he does at this point is he turns this into a personal reflection on life and death in verse 20 he says something that helps us to understand how he viewed his purpose in life and this is where it all begins when you don't have purpose you have no confidence when you don't have purpose you don't know what you're doing you don't know where you're going jesus said that you're just mulling around he says whether it's by life or by death christ will be honored in my body now here's a a word i wish were not translated honored it's just too weak it should be magnified the word means to make large really he's explaining here that he gained a perspective about life because his single pursuit in life was the magnification of christ so you really don't understand life you really don't understand death until you understand the purpose of why you exist in facing both of those we'll never really share paul's understanding until we grasp what it is to magnify christ in life he's describing amplification you could imagine boys and girls when you have a microscope and you put something under it it just magnifies and you see clearly and what paul's describing here is that when people would look at him that they would see his joy and comfort and hope through suffering and what particularly happens when people see that they see something absolutely odd they're seeing christ and this statement of course is vitally connected to what he said in Galatians chapter 2. I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life that I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So he's explaining pursuit. He's explaining the passion. Here's why he says it matters. Because all of this then, when you have that perspective, it's going to turn out for your deliverance. look at verse 21 for me to live is christ and to die is gain if someone were to ask me what's a christian i think i would go to this verse i think i'd go to this section i don't know that there's any section that better describes the life of the christian when we speak of a christian we're speaking of belonging to somebody we're speaking of following somebody and here it's specific it's following and belonging to christ so that my entire life becomes his. And what does that mean? Well, it means that we're no longer directed and controlled by what we want to do. This is what Jesus said to Peter. You went that way, you went this way, but no longer. And so when we live believing that, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. You begin to look at life in a certain kind of way. You begin to understand that everything that comes down your path in life is specifically appointed as an opportunity to magnify him paul had to learn that the view of everything in life given under the sovereign hand of god that specifically appointed for him to enlarge and make great the life of christ now here's where i pause for a minute we read to live is christ and to die is gain and i suspect because I, in working through this, still don't think I understood it properly. I'm making an assumption that we don't fully understand that verse. What do I mean? Don't you think that our perspective about this life is that it's really just getting the glory? Don't you think it's that? It's just about getting there? And that then we'll really enjoy the fullness of that? Amen. I mean, I'm not contesting that at all. I'm asking a question and I say, yes, that's true. That we'll have the fullness of that. Heaven will be wonderful beyond your greatest imagination and estimation. It's just going to be awesome. But I do think we've lost something about our view of life. Is Paul saying, and here's my question, is Paul saying that the real gain is in death? Is he making a separation that we really only get Christ and death? Or is he saying that Christ is the subject of both life and death? What Paul is describing here is not the exclusion of the other, but that Christ is both to him. That's what's shocking. He's saying that life itself, in life itself, he's gaining. He's gaining Christ. life becomes a gain, an opportunity to learn, to gain that, which is most important to you. And that's why Jesus gives the whole little parable of the pearl of great price, that when you find that pearl, you're done with everything else. You found it. This is my pursuit. This is my gain. I don't want anything else. Nothing else is that sweet. Now, why does that matter? Well, that means that what Paul is saying is, whether he lives or whether he dies, he's gaining Christ. now do you see how that would affect the present what was the problem well these christians were discouraged these christians were they were really discouraged about all the hardships of it all thinking that the real gain is just death and paul is saying no no no no and this is the point of the driving of the passage paul is saying you're not understanding why these sufferings are given to you. You're not understanding why God's appointed them for the present. It is that you would magnify him. And that's how you enjoy him. I think Christians are some of the worst at looking at death because we've not come to a place of real enjoyment of life as we should. It was James Boyce who said, how unfortunate it is that many Christians go through life with somber faces they know the facts of the christian faith and they trust christ for their salvation but there's no joy there is nothing that gives evidence of god's presence in the midst of life or its tribulations and we miss something listen to calvin christ is declared to be gain to Paul both in life and in death and assuredly it is Christ alone that makes us happy both in death and in life let Christ be with us and he will bless our life as well as our death so that both will be happy and desirable for us whoa desirable death now do you see the perspective then that's coming out. Paul is saying that I've so learned in life to live for Christ right now, magnifying him, viewing everything under that sovereign design as an opportunity specifically crafted to magnify him through all the pains and trials for his glory. I've learned that and steadfastly by his grace remained in steadfast communion and fellowship with him that it affects my whole view of coming death. What does that do? It takes away the fear of death. It takes away the fear of death. If I've already known what it is to gain Christ in life, what do you think death's going to be? The ultimate gaining of what you've already enjoyed. I mean, can you imagine if we, God's people love to come to a house of worship and they love to listen to sermons and they love to sing to him. And none of this seems real glorious. If you've learned to taste that now, can you imagine what heaven's going to be like? When you're face to face? You'll never really then be able to say die is gain until you're able to say to live is Christ. Isn't it true? You'll never really be able to say it. And so Paul drives us home by now showing his entire perspective. Look at verse 22. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor. Yet what I shall choose, and verse 22 is now presenting this dilemma. Yet what I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that's far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. What is Paul saying? Well, he's wrestling with, okay, what would be more preferable if I had to make the choice, if I could make the choice. And nobody ultimately can have the choice to end their life. He's saying this hypothetically. He's presenting to us a circumstance that if he did have to make the choice, he knows that he may die. He knows that he may be freed. It's not in his hands. But he speaks here, if I had a choice to live or to die, what would I choose? Which you kind of ask the question, what would you choose? What would be your choice? And he presents it as if this is a real quandary. This is a real struggle for me. I'm hard-pressed between the two. I am pressed in on both sides. I'm really having a hard time with this one. My mind is pressed from each reality. Living or dying. So for Paul, it wasn't a tension between living and dying. it was a tension between living and being assured that whatever he faced, both good and bad, there would be fruit. And that would be for Christ. That would be to magnify Christ, which is an amazing privilege and opportunity to glorify him in life, to magnify him. So the tension was between gaining Christ now and the highest gaining of Christ in death. You see it? it's never a tension between now, no Christ, and then Christ. It's a tension between here, Christ, and Christ. Christ here, Christ there. Well, what a perspective. I'm hard-pressed because I do have a desire to depart. And I want to be with Christ, and let me just say that's far better. Well, of course it is. In other words, if I did have a choice, The far better one is death. Why? Because I'm immediately with him. No purgatory, by the way. You're there. I'm loosed, he says. I get to go. No soul sleep. No separation. I go. Right then. To which we say, that's pretty exciting, isn't it? Death's far better. No more sin. You ever feel that? death's entrance into glory. If it were about me, that's my choice. Now what keeps us from saying that today? What keeps us from that? Let me test you a little bit. What is overwhelming? What is the overwhelming truth about death? What do we believe about death? Let me quote Thomas Gattacher for a minute. I was reading some of his old sermons and I found this just profound. God's children are never better delivered than when delivered by death. For then they are delivered not out of one, but out of all troubles. And so delivered they need no further deliverance anymore. After this life, all grief and pain shall then be done away, and all tears wiped away from our eyes. Pain and toil will be over. All misery, there's no more need to feed the hungry. All bodily pains and diseases are cured at once. Old age will be done away. No more of Satan's temptations. He can't draw you out of the way anymore by beating and buffeting you. We will prevail against him. He cannot sway us anymore. No more temptings. Our souls are out of reach. They're taken up to heaven. And then I add, We wait for this glorious resurrected body with no more of everything you're trying to hide, by the way. And yet we hold on here. How strange, isn't it? How many of you have ever stopped and wrestled with, well, is death really better than life? No, because we're all trying to stay as far away from that as possible. And it's not the best witness, is it? To the unbelieving world. it's an exposure that we're holding tight to this life for wrong reasons that that's what it's an exposure and it's incredibly hard thing to make a christian willing to die i i think that's what really impacts me here it's an incredibly hard thing to make a christian willing to die and yet what paul is describing for us is that he came to a place of such maturity that he had to make himself willing to live. And you see, if we've not come here yet, that's why you're still struggling with the fear of death. And I struggle. I'm not saying I'm at all arrived to where Paul's describing by far. Well, why is he even wrestling with this then? Well, these Christians in Philippi were so discouraged and Paul says something that then motivates them to live. Pursuing death in a sense because we die daily. This is what he says in verse 24. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. I know there will be fruit from my existence here since Christ is being magnified in me. So I know that there's a great benefit in that to continue here and to be diligent in that, which I just have to say, it's not in my notes, so I'm risky here. Retirement can be dangerous because we transfer American retirement mentality right on into retirement in the life of the church. I know that if I live, my life will be more of an advantage to you. See it? This is what's on his mind. I wish we all thought like that. I wish I thought like that. One of the themes in Philippians is being a servant, that you must become a slave, that you must become a servant. That's at the root of what it is to live for Christ. What do I mean? In the next chapter, Paul's going to say, let this mind be in you that was in him who did what? Became a bondservant. That's why he came here. He had no other purpose than to come here to lay down his life and to give himself to save you because he wanted to get back home and now the life that is filled with joy in this life becomes sacrificial it then means that my life is not for me it's for others not pursuing my interests not flying off the handle when things go wrong not holding grudges not not holding tight to anger and bitterness and misery christ is magnified in us as we deny ourselves and live the sacrificial life and there joy is fulfilled because you're never more like Christ and Paul sees that in everything in your giving he'll talk about that in your circumstances imagine if we live believing in the sovereignty of God that every single thing that happens to us in life is so directly appointed and crafted by him that it's designed so that you would understand that it's to be taken and let Christ be magnified in you by life or by death death is far better i want that but i choose to go on because it becomes a magnification of Christ to you and that means your joy and your faith will progress. Sacrifice in service of your faith. There are a lot of children. You know, as a father, I think, well, I have my children around my table. If I'm here, I've got a great responsibility right there. Little lives that need to be trained to know Christ. And I look at all that he's done for me and man, it's been a long path and hard work. Look at their lives and they still have the whole life in front of them. All the decisions they're going to make. You have a church family. You have neighbors next door. When have you ever gone to your neighbor and invited them to church? The need right now is greater for the moment than my immediate presence and going with Christ. There's a greater need at the moment. I'm going to be there, but right now, this is this is important and that'll change the way you look at everything in life that's what he says in verse 25 convinced of this i know that i will remain and continue with you all listen for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in christ jesus so in other words when you look at me and you see me suffering and you see christ radiating from me, that's going to help you a tremendous amount. Because when I come to you, you're going to see that. Reputations can perceive themselves. How do people look at you? I never find in scripture that death is just held out for us as a gain over trial. But rather, I do find that it's portrayed as a gaining of something that you should already be enjoying the fullness of it it's like a marriage you know then when the marriage is finally consummated you get the full enjoyment of that but that premarital period is so important because you're getting to know the person and there's discipline and boundaries and it's so important in that period for the health death is the ultimate gaining of what you've enjoyed in life it's a perfection and an excelling of the realization of what you already have. And if that's the case, we can see why we should view hardship then in life as something handed by God as an opportunity to magnify Him, that He would be glorified and enjoyed and God's people and the world seeing that witness help. Who may we be hindering in that progress and joy because we show no demonstration of the joy of Jesus Christ. Who's sitting next to you that you might be hindering? I close with this. One pastor said, life and death look to us like two evils of which we know not which is the less. As for the apostle, they look to him like two immense blessings of which he knows not which is the better. On either side of the veil, Jesus Christ is all things to him. Think about the saints who've died in the Lord today. They're gone. They've obtained what their lives were lived for. the ultimate gaining of him. But it's pretty exciting if God still has you here. And if you're here today, then God has you here because your life is to be an immense blessing for the progress and joy of others. May these examples then all around us of the older brothers and sisters to remember that. May these examples inspire what is most important in life. May the older generations be that. May the younger generations take notice of that. And may we all encourage one another as we look forward to, Paul says, this upward calling that we have where we're going so that we would know then that to gain Christ, we gain Him, whether by life or by death. Let's praise Him today. Heavenly Father, we have much to be thankful for and actually to ask forgiveness for because, Lord, we haven't viewed this life properly and we've held tight to it for the wrong reason. And we confess that we're just too weak in and of ourselves to let go, to desire to be loose. But You are faithful. And in our weakness, we ask that we would begin to demonstrate what is here presented to us today. That our lives would magnify Christ in what we do. That our lives would be set apart and that this whole perspective would drive us. That if you want to take us tomorrow, take us. And it's not some dreadful thing that we have to fear because look what you've promised us. But yet we also know that there are a lot of people around us who need to see joy. Who need to see real Christian life. And we pray that that perspective then would drive us, that we would be useful for the Master and that our lives would have the proper goal that You have ordained for them to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, let us gain You now and enjoy You so that when we die, we immediately enter into Your presence and have obtained what we've already known. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.