Living Life | January 18 2026 (Part 2)

Ah, yeah. Well, good morning, everybody.

Thanks for that message, Deb. That was awesome.

Once you turn your Bibles with me to Philippians Chapter one, a

little letter in the middle of the New Testament.

If you're having trouble knowing where that is, table of contents

on the screen help you to get there.

Last week we started a message series and New Year's message

series called Living the Life. Question, Are you living the

life, friends? Are you living the life?

We're talking about the Christian life, but we're not

talking about the things that we do in the Christian life

specifically, as important as those things are.

But we're talking about the life behind the Christian life.

What gives us spiritual vitality, what gives us the

energy and the unction and the power to live out the Christian

life. That's what we're talking about

today. And last week is Deb spoke about

we introduced this idea of crossing the line that that

everything begins when we crossover from death to life.

That's where it all begins. You know, Jesus, John 524 says

very truly. I tell you, whoever hears my

word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not

be judged, but it's crossed over from death to life.

I remember that moment in my life when I heard the word of

Christ and I believed Him who sent Him.

Everything became God, became real to me.

I remember the moment became very real to me.

Suddenly I realized that God was not just an idea, not just a

concept, but He was a person who was real and He cared for me.

He loved me, He was near to me, and he was involved in my life

and I could turn to him at any moment.

And this realization that he took on flesh and came to the

earth to die in my place on a cross was like, whoa, I've heard

about a Jesus and I heard about a cross, but I did not connect

that with my own life. And suddenly it just became real

to me. All my sins were nailed to the

cross of Jesus Christ and were buried with him was like I was

crucified with him and he brought me to new life.

When he rose from the dead, He opened up a way for me to be not

just forgiven and not condemned, but for me to be approved as a

dear child of God and to be given a new life.

Like everything changed for me. Everything.

It was like I had been living black and white all my life up

until that point. Third year university.

Suddenly everything became like colour to me, vibrant colour.

The the sky was blue or the the clouds were whiter and the trees

were greener. You know, you think, OK, well,

John, that's spring, right? This was in the middle of winter

in in British Columbia, by the way.

But everything became new and fresh and new and vibrant to me.

People were more beautiful. I had a joy that could not be

taken from me. And it still hasn't been stolen.

A joy, not just in general, but a joy in serving people.

Like just enjoying the idea and the action of loving and caring

for people and seeing, seeing their joy.

Something from the outside had come into my life.

Life had entered into my life. This is what the apostle Paul

was talking about. Galatians chapter 2 verse 10.

Galatians 2:10

He says I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but

Christ lives in me. That was my experience.

Now I ask you, what has been your experience?

If you call yourself a Christian, what has your

experience been? I will tell you one thing.

Your experience may not be exactly the same as my

experience. In fact, Helen, guarantee that

it's not exactly the same as my experience, because all of us

are very, very different in that way.

You may not be able to point back to a moment in time where

there's this dramatic moment where you crossed over from

death to life. I didn't feel anything different

in particular, but you did cross over and that's the question.

That's that's the main question for us.

Did you have you crossed over from death to life?

Some of us know it for sure. We're totally confident.

I have crossed over from death to life.

I know it. Others of us know for sure that

we have not crossed over from death to life.

And then there's others of us who are just a little unsure,

not not, not very sure. What are the signs that would

indicate that I have been that I've crossed over from death to

life? What are what are we what are we

looking for? There are, you know, in the

medical community, we talk about vital signs.

Mark, can you mind coming up? I know we haven't talked about

this, but let lie out, lie out here, right on the line.

Just lie out there we go. Very good.

Now, if I was if I had. Thanks, man.

He's a good sport. If I was to come into the

sanctuary right now and see Mark lying down, my first thought

would be Marks falling asleep in the middle of my sermon.

I mean that that might be my first thought.

But when I come over and really. And I just put your head down,

stop. OK.

And and I say, hey, Mark, Mark. Yeah.

There you go. Mark.

Any there's no response. I would start to worry a little

bit, like this is more than just a deep sleep.

Is this guy, is this guy dead? And so how would I check to find

out if Marcus still living or not?

And so I'd go down and maybe, I'd maybe listen to his voice.

Getting really intimate with you, bro.

Yeah, Not listen to his voice. Listen to his breathing.

Is he breathing? Or maybe I'd check for some

vital signs or feel this actually, these are cold hands.

Is is this body cold or warm? Is he alive or is he dead?

It had check for these vital signs.

Thanks, man. That's good.

That's all. Thanks for that.

Yeah, there's certain vital signs that we're looking for

from a physical standpoint, but there's also vital signs that we

can look for spiritually. What are those vital signs?

We wanna take of just a few moments this morning to do a

little bit of a spiritual assessment.

Where are there signs of spiritual life in my life?

And where are there signs of perhaps spiritual death that

need to be addressed? And we're going to look at

somebody's life. We're gonna look at someone who

we know has crossed over from death to life.

And it's Apostle Paul. And he's written this little

letter to the church in Philippi.

And Paul, you need to know, realizes that he's in prison and

he's awaiting execution. Now when you're in prison

awaiting execution, would you call that a very difficult

circumstance? That is a challenging

circumstance. And whenever we are challenged,

when we're facing heavy duty, circumstances are real.

Colours tend to come out, don't they?

The real me is shown. The real Paul is revealed in

this letter, and it is beautiful.

And so we're gonna take a look at, I'm just gonna point out

three spiritual vital signs that we see in the apostle Paul.

And I'm not gonna be pointing out things that he did is

important as you know, as as our actions or behavior are very

important. But what I'm gonna be pointing

out is he's what he wanted, His desires.

You see, when he moved, crossed over from death to life, his

desires began to change. There was a shift in the things

that he wanted. And that's what we're gonna look

at. And why?

Why that's so important is because when our desires change,

our behavior changes. What we actually do is a follow

through of what we really want. And so, Lord God in heaven

above, we thank you for this glorious book we call the Bible.

And we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to illuminate

this word, to awaken us to the truth and bring us, Lord, to

that place of fullness of life in Jesus Christ.

But we pray it in His name. Amen.

I'm in Philippians chapter 1 and we're gonna read from verse 12

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

to 26. Everybody with me, We good now.

This is what Paul. Paul's ready now.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened

to me. He's talking about being in

prison. What has happened to me?

He's actually served to advance the gospel.

Talk about a positive outlook. OK, as a result, it has become

clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone

else that I'm in chains for Christ.

And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have

become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim

the gospel without fear. Now it's true that some preach

Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

The latter do so out of love, knowing that I'm put here for

the defence of the gospel. The former preached Christ out

of selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing that they

can stir up trouble for me while I'm in chains.

But what does it matter? The important thing is that in

every way, whether from false motives are true, Christ is

preached. And because of this, I rejoice.

We're just gonna pause there for a minute.

You might be reading this and thinking people out of envy and

rivalry or preaching the gospel. It doesn't seem to make sense

and scholars are trying to put putting this together like what

is happening here. We don't exactly know who he's

referring to, but we can maybe surmise a few options.

One maybe like Paul was very popular.

He was very well known and he was highly respected and now

he's in prison. There may be others that saying,

you know what, I'm gonna take the Super apostle job of Paul

and I'm gonna preach the gospel in this place and maybe I'll

become popular. So there's this kind of envy and

rivalry, sort of a selfish ambition that maybe there or

perhaps it could have been that someone is mocking Paul, like

Paul's in prison. I wanna make life even more

miserable. And so I'm just like, you know

what, the Apostle Paul, he's an idiot, right?

He's an idiot. And he's preaching this gospel

that, that, that God came in the flesh and, and he, Jesus Christ

died on the cross to pay for your sins and he rose from the

dead. So you can have newness of life.

Like how ridiculous is that? The gospel is still being

preached, right, Even though the motives are not quite right.

We don't know exactly what he's talking about, but Paul is

celebrating the fact that the gospel is getting out.

Let's continue on. Verse 18 continues.

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through

your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will no way be ashamed, but will

have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be

exalted in my body, whether by life or by death, who love it,

whether I live or whether I die, as long as Christ is being

magnified, that's the most important thing to me.

Let's stop there and let's talk about the first vital sign.

This first vital sign is what I would call impact, a desire for

impact. In other words, I wanna get the

word out. That was Paul's heart.

I want to get the word out about who Jesus is and what he has

done for us. He wants others to come to

Christ. Listen to what he says, verse

12. He says, now I want you to know,

brothers, sisters, that what has happened to me is actually

served to advance the gospel. Like he's rejoicing over the

fact that the gospel is moving forward.

It's getting out to more and more people and others are being

saved. Their eyes are being opened.

They're coming into a relationship with God through

Jesus Christ. It is awesome.

He's celebrating the fact that even though the motives may not

be right with some people, the gospel is still being preached

and as a response, people are waking up to it and coming to

Christ and becoming Christians. Paul is so like, you know what

evangelism is like, sharing our faith at the heart and soul of

it. It's really about wanting others

to know the joy of knowing Christ.

Like Paul was enjoying Jesus and he just wanted others to enjoy

too. Like, who wouldn't want to enjoy

this? This is real life.

And so he's sharing the gospel in another letter he wrote

Romans chapter in Romans chapter 10, he he's quoting Isaiah 52, I

Romans 10 · chapter mention

believe it was. And he says, how beautiful are

the feet of those who preach, sorry, who bring good news?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

I remember the first time I read that verse.

I thought, that's a little strange.

Like human feet. I haven't seen too many

beautiful human feet. Maybe you do have some.

You don't have to prove me wrong.

That's quite alright. But but what what is what's

being said there? It it's that that anyone who's

bringing the message of good news of Jesus Christ is

actually, it's a beautiful thing that they're doing this like

Paul is rejoicing in the act of bringing the gospel to other

people. That, my friends, is a sign of

spiritual life. That is spiritual vitality right

there. Now what?

Think about that and just assessing yourself is that,

would that be true of you? Now, I'll just say that maybe

you have never led another individual to Jesus Christ.

Maybe you're kind of operating a little bit out of fear of

sharing the Gospel with other people because you're worried

that you're gonna be judged, you're gonna be condemned, gonna

be looked down on, whatever it might be.

I don't wanna ruin the relationship or whatever, but is

there still a desire? Do you have a desire that others

would know? Do you have a desire to get the

word out, even if you're having trouble getting it out?

You know, there were a lot of people in Paul's day who had

fear. I mean, if they were to open up

their mouths about Jesus, maybe they're gonna land in jail like

Paul did. But when Paul landed in jail, it

actually became a super big inspiration to them to start

sharing their faith. Just look at down in verse 14,

he says. And because of my change, most

of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and

dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

This is a very real thing, Fear. But is there a desire?

Is there a desire that is a sign of life?

So if we were to look at that and look at the opposite of

that, what are the signs then of spiritual death?

If if wanting to get the word out as a sign of spiritual life,

what about the sign of spiritual death?

Is that we don't want to get the word out.

Is that we're not very excited about gospel advancement in the

world. That the idea of having a

concern for lost people, people that are apart from Christ, it's

just not a concern about. It doesn't bother me.

I'm living next to neighbors who clearly do not know Jesus and

ohhh well, and I have no desire at all to talk to anybody about

Jesus. These are signs of spiritual

death. And and if, if you can resonate

with those things, I would just say this is a little bit of a

wake up call that to realize that these are more signs of

death than they are of life. Let's let's keep moving on back

up to verse 20, the parcel post says.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but

will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will

be exalted in my body, whether by death or by life.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

If I'm to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful

labour for me. Yet what shall I choose?

I do not know. I'm torn between the two.

I desire to depart and be with Christ.

Which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I

remain in the body, next vital sign, and that is intimacy.

Intimacy. I wanna know Christ more.

Paul defines life in general as Christ being at the very centre

of it. To me, to live is Christ.

It's all about Christ. Doing life with Christ, doing

things for Christ, allowing people to come to know Christ

through me. Everything's about Christ, but

to die it's, it's even better because I'm gonna be with

Christ. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be close to

Christ. There's gonna be nothing in

between me and Christ. It's a win, win situation for

Paul. Whether I live or whether I die,

it's a win, win. I've won.

Can can you see that? Can you say that is a that's a

sign like he wants to know Christ more.

If I was to depart, it's better by far.

Depart meaning if I was to die, it's better by far because I'm

gonna really know Christ. Then later on chapter 3 verse

10, he says this. He says I want to know Christ

and the power of his resurrection.

I wanna know Christ. That word know means not just

know about, but I wanna know experientially.

I wanna know personally this God, this, this, this Jesus.

I wanna know Christ Now. Paul already knew Christ, but he

wanted to know Christ more and the power of the resurrection

life this is. He hungered to know Christ more.

Is that true of you? That is a sign of spiritual

vitality. I wanna grow in my knowledge and

experience and understanding and appreciation of Jesus Christ.

So if that's the case, what about the opposite?

What are some of the signs of spiritual death?

Is that I don't really care to know too much more about Jesus.

I think I've heard enough, right?

There may be little desire to pray, little desire to read

God's Word, little desire really to enter into worship.

Maybe somebody had to drag you here this morning.

That's not a very good sign. That wasn't very good joke.

Psalm 122. This is David speaking, he says.

He says, I rejoiced with those who said to me, let us go to the

House of the Lord. David rejoiced over the thought

of coming to God's house to worship God with his people.

He rejoiced. He anticipated he was looking

forward to it, as excited about it is.

Is that you Now, the fact that you're here, this is a very good

sign. Even if you were dragged here,

that's alright, that's good. At least you're here, which is

awesome. No, All that to say, little

desire to pray, a little desire to get into God's world, little

desire to worship. There may be seasons of our

life, like if your feet have been taken out from under you

because of this, you know, or you've been blindsided by some

horrific circumstance and you're totally disoriented in your

life. You may have trouble praying.

You may have trouble getting into God's Word.

You may have trouble even entering into worship.

That's A season. If you if you're a follower of

Jesus, that's A season and that season will pass.

What I'm talking about is this long standing lack of desire to

pray, to talk to God, to read His word, and to gain something

personally from that and to worship.

Those are signs of spiritual death.

Um, no, some of us find a challenging with regard to

relating to God. Like what does a relationship

with God look like? We might hear other people talk

about their relationship with God and say, well, that's not

quite like it is for me. So am I really Christian Like

we, we question that. I'll just say a couple of things

to that. One is, is that we're all very

different. We all do relationships

differently, every single one of us.

God has made us differently and so we're gonna relate to him

differently. There are some commonalities, to

be sure, but there's so much that's different.

You know, Mother Teresa. Would anybody doubt that Mother

Teresa had crossed from death to life, totally committed her life

to the ministry of Jesus, to the poor and destitute and the

disease in Calcutta, the streets of Calcutta?

But when she passed away, in her journals you read that she had a

lot of trouble with prayer, that though she did pray, she didn't

hear the voice of God as much as she wished that she had.

And very often she couldn't sense the presence of God, even

though she was doing the ministry of God in the streets

of Calcutta. But she wanted more of Jesus.

That's the difference. There was a desire there, no

hunger to know more of Jesus. Even though there was a

disappointment that she wanted more and wasn't experiencing

more, there was a desire. That's the vital sign we're

looking for here. Do you want more of God?

Do you want more of God, or are you comfortable in the place

that you are at a distance from God?

That's a very important question for us to consider.

Are we comfortable in behavior that is clearly not of God's

behavior that we would consider sinful?

No. For example, how are we dealing

with our money? How are we?

How are we? You know, we might think, well,

I'm just very frugal and I'm a good steward of the money, but I

will not part with my money. I will not be generous.

God calls us to be generous on every occasion, and yet am I

generous? Maybe you're in an inappropriate

relationship right now. You're you're doing stuff that

you know you shouldn't be doing, but you're comfortable there.

You're OK with it. That's a sign of spiritual

death. Maybe you are just locked up in

bitterness towards someone who has hurt you or maybe someone

that you love and you cannot forgive them and you will not

forgive them and you're comfortable in that place, not

forgiving, which is totally, you know, in, in offence to the

commands of God. That's a sign of spiritual

death. Maybe it's pornography, maybe

it's gambling, maybe it's some other addiction that you seem to

be quite comfortable in right now and it doesn't bother you

that it's a great offence to the God who has made you.

That's a sign of spiritual death.

But, and here's the big butt, if it does bother you, maybe you

are locked into. Maybe you're in bondage to to to

porn or gambling or whatever it might be or to unforgiveness.

But you don't wanna be. I want to know Christ.

I wanna grow closer to Christ. That is a sign of spiritual

life, even if there is a challenge to follow through on

it. And so we're called.

Scripture calls us to acknowledge that fact and to

confess our sin and to cry out to God and he will save all

those who call to him. Flee it and then flee.

Flee from it with, with everything we have.

OK, we gotta, we gotta keep moving here.

Verse 23. I'm torn between the two,

whether it's better to live or whether to die.

I'm torn between the two of this part of my life, a desire to

depart and be with Christ, which is better, but by far.

But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body,

convinced of this. I know that I will remain and I

will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the

faith, so that through my being with you again, your boasting in

Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

That's where we're stopping. Last vital sign is love.

It's love. I want the best for my Bros and

sisters in Christ, right? I want the best for those who

also call themselves Christians. This love, listen to it here, he

says. You know, hey, even though my,

my preference would be to be with Jesus Christ, I'm gonna be

put here and I'm gonna rejoice over because I'm gonna be here

helping you to progress and to find joy in your faith.

Paul had found the secret of joy and it was the joy of seeing

others joyful as a result of what he has done and you see it

all the way through this letter, his deep love for the people of

God. Look back in verse 3 says I

thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers

for all of you. I always pray with joy because

of your partnership in the gospel.

Down to verse 7, he says. It is right for me to feel this

way about all of you, since I have you in my heart.

And then down to verse 8, he says God can testify how I long

for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

The apostle Paul, he loved the people of God and he showed it.

He had a desire. I want what's best for you.

That is a sign of spiritual vitality.

It's actually, you know, what's explicitly spoken and in first

1 John 3:14

John chapter 3 verse 14, it says this.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love

each other. Sign of spiritual life is that

of that we've crossed over from death to life is that we love

each other. He's referring to love.

He's talking, I mean love in general with all people.

That's a given. But he's talking specifically

about our love for other followers of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who does not love remains in death.

So what's the contrast here? If love is the sign of spiritual

life, what's the sign of spiritual death?

There's a lack of love that our love is has grown cold, that I'm

now turned inward. My concern is for me and not for

you, not not for others. And I have no real desire and

don't feel really any need to connect with other followers of

Jesus Christ to have fellowship with him.

I'm perfectly content to come and worship on a Sunday morning

because it's between me and God. But this between us and and each

other, I'll leave that. I'll leave that for someone

else. Now, you may have been burned by

someone in the church. You may be in a season if you're

a follower of Jesus. There are seasons where we may

have trouble enjoying fellowship with other believers, and that

can be OK for a time, but that's A season that's gonna pass.

I'm talking about long standing lack of desire to love other

fellow believers. That's a sign of spiritual

death. But if there is a desire, even

if we have trouble following through on it, which me

everybody does, that's a sign of spiritual life.

OK, so let's, let's just step back from this just for a minute

and realize that Paul is in incredibly stressful and

difficult circumstances right now.

I mean, I, I, I can't visualize a more, a more stressful

situation, but notice how he approaches it.

There's no poor me going on. He's not grown inward.

He's not blaming God for what he's going through, what's

happening. He sees this as an opportunity.

It's an opportunity to get the word out and to get to know

Jesus more and an opportunity to love my brothers and sisters in

Christ. Like here he is.

He's in prison. If if you're this could be your

last days, you're gonna be executed.

What's he doing? He's writing a letter to

encourage other believers in Jesus Christ like with is that

what you and I would be doing now?

I just think this is that's a sign of spiritual life right

there. Now we're going to find

ourselves continually in places that we would rather not be,

right? Whether it's in a hospital room,

whether it's, you know, we're in a job that we don't like or

we're in a family that we can't handle or whether we're in a

school that we don't fit in. You know, we we're in those

kinds of circumstances or maybe we're in jail.

How will we respond and what response will that be?

Will it show signs of life or signs of death?

And here's that invitation, that Jesus saying, come and have

life, come and have life. Believe me who I am, what I've

done for you. Believe me that I've got you

covered, because when you know you, I've got you that God's got

us covered. Then we can go about getting the

word out in drawing close to Christ and to love others.

It's only when we believe that, when we know that, when we see

that in other people, when we see these signs of, of life,

spiritual life and other people is not encouraging, is it not

inspiring. Dave, would you mind, mind

joining me up here? Yeah, come on up.

I know when the last time is you had a conversation with my

friend Dave Snow, but we're gonna have a little mini

conversation with him here today because you will likely have not

left that conversation without in some way being inspired.

So Dave is a member of Forest View and let's see here.

We good, there is life. OK, there we go.

That's here. But but some, some who are here,

Dave, may not know about your recent diagnosis and what are

the treatments that you're doing right now.

Just give us a little little update.

Great, so last year about this time I started to feel really

itchy all over my body. Said something to my Doctor

Who's also a believer and he started to put me suit.

Through some tests everything came back negative.

He gave me a save for the itchiness and that carried on

and on. And then around August of last

year, I just started to feel myself getting a little bit

weaker, notice that I had some more weight loss and sent my doc

an e-mail. And I said, doc, I, I think, I

think something's not right here.

I need to get tested some more. And I said, if we tested for

everything, he said, I'll get started.

And so they did. They did the blood tests and I

went back and forth for blood tests and various testings.

He gets me back into his office in September.

He says, Dave, he said, we've tested for everything.

You keep coming back negative. And I said, Doc, I'm feeling a

little bit of abdominal pain as well.

I said, have we tested for pancreas and liver?

And he said, no, I have not yet ruled out either of those.

And I said, well, I said I'd feel better if we did.

So I guess a couple weeks later, he sends me an e-mail.

He says, listen, tomorrow I'm in the emergency at Lincoln over

here. And he says, why don't you come

by and I'll get you in for a CAT scan.

So so I did. And ironically, that particular

day was feeling even more pain. I felt like there was something

not right. And true enough, I had a bladder

infection as it turned out. And but he put me through the

CAT scan, through the whole process of being in the

emergency, came back to me that night and said probably around

midnight and said, and he looked like death warmed over.

And he said, Dave, he said, you've got a bladder infection,

he said, but there is a a spot on the pancreas.

And he said, he said it doesn't look good.

And he said you've also got a, a blood clot in the pancreas as

well. I said, and I could tell he

looked guilty. And I said, doc, I said, are you

feeling bad here? He said, I feel terrible.

I said, don't. I said, Doc, I am prepared for

this moment. I feel zero fear and no despair.

I said, and you know as well as I, we have a promise of eternal

life. So this is just another day at

the office. I said I don't want you feeling

bad. It's all good.

What's the next step? So that's where we went from

there. Yeah.

So pancreatic cancer. They later determined it was

stage 3, where I'm at right now as I finished my 2nd chemo

treatment. Tomorrow is in fact the third

chemo treatment. And if I may, first of all, if

you ever feel extreme itchiness, take it seriously because as I

read more and more about it, it's typically an early warning

sign for cancer. And then abdominal pain is also

not good. But the good news is, if you're

going to get sick, this is absolutely the best place in the

world to get sick because the care is over the top.

It's amazing, absolutely amazing.

And the other thing to say about chemo is everything I'd heard

was negative, but I don't feel negative.

Had abdominal pain, I had back pain, all kinds of stuff before

the chemo. And since the chemo started back

on December 12th, I've had no back pain, no abdominal pain, no

nausea, no nothing. The 1st 7 to 10 days is really

bad fatigue after the chemo and then I feel like the first day

of spring. So today I feel great.

If it wasn't for the weight loss, I'm ready to run in the

Olympics tomorrow. Except tomorrow's chemo day, so

it ain't happening, right? So.

But Dave, you've been given a diagnosis.

Did they give you a time frame and how?

Right. So the good news is stage 3

means it's not stage 4. The other thing was they felt

that it had not spread to other organs.

So Amen to that. And and their hope is that they

shrink it and then remove it. But listen, pancreas is a death

sentence. It's let's less than 1% chance

of survival. My prayer is not, I don't even

think in terms of healing. My level of gratitude is off the

charts for each day that I get. But also I feel prayers.

I feel your prayers. I, I really do.

It's very empowering. It's been incredible.

This feeling of immense gratitude that I have total,

complete lack of fear and despair and knowledge and

conviction of not only my salvation, but the promise of

eternal life is a beautiful thing.

And so you know what I'm loving every day.

It's all good. Where were we?

I think you covered it bro. Definitely there's, you know,

when I read these words of Paul, you know to live as Christ, to

die is gain. If I'm to go on living in the

body, some more fruitful labour for me.

Yet what shall I choose? I do not know.

I'm torn between the two desired apart with Christ, which is

better by far, I think of you. Dave, Yeah.

Thank you. Listen, I I can't, I can't say

enough about what a blessing it is to be at this church.

From day one, from the moment I set foot in here, I felt

welcome. This church is an amazing

church. I've always felt it was a

special place. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank.

You thank you. You're a man of great.

You're a man who's, you know, getting the word out.

Be sure and continue to do that. But your man of great faith,

yes, I know you believe in healing.

Yes. Well, I, you know, it's, it's a

funny thing. People, you know, think, OK, I'm

always praying for you. To be honest.

That is not something I ever think in terms of.

I feel healed. The healing is, you know, first

of all, his will be done. I told Jacob today, play that

song. Your will be done every Sunday.

I'm happy. But you know, the you know, the,

the wonderful opportunity I've had in sharing my sickness is,

you know, I feel worse for the people I'm telling than I do for

me. But it's a wonderful open door

to plant seeds. I don't think in terms of

leading people to Christ. I never really have, but I do

think in terms of seed planting, seed planting, seed planting.

And I even tell people that I'm sharing when I share the story

of the cross, I say, listen, I'll be honest.

I I love to plant seeds. The day will come where every

knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is

Lord. I said, so right now I'm giving

you the truth. You may not see that, but I'm

preparing you to make the right decision when that time comes.

And so that is what will happen. You now have that information.

You'll be able to refer back to it.

And on that day, you will make an 11th hour decision for

Christ, no different than the criminals who said, Lord, take

me with you. And Jesus said today you'll be

with me in paradise, right? Yeah.

So it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's good.

It really is a beautiful. Thing.

Anything else you want to share with the congregation, just give

the opportunity. You shared quite a.

Bit I. Do yeah.

Yeah. One more thing I want to share,

and that is that, you know Daniel, when he prophesied in

420 BC that Mashia would come before destruction of the Second

Temple. Well, 490 years later, 7 * 70

biblical numbers. Of course the Romans destroyed

the Second Temple 40 years earlier.

You're sure was crucified. Another biblical #40 And so you

could Google, and I did this morning, you could Google the

last year that God received animal sacrifice from the Jews

on Yom Kippur, and you'd probably get two different

answers. There's only 1 truthful answer.

1 might be that it would be a D70 when the Second temple was

destroyed. But no, that's not the truth.

The truth is that the last time God received animal sacrifice,

there were four points of confirmation that that God sent

to the Jews so that they would know to always sacrifice on Yom

Kippur. That is the Jewish Day of

Atonement. The last year of animal

sacrifice was 30 AD. The Jews have not sacrificed

animals on Yom Kippur since 30AD, and of course we know why.

Doesn't get any better than that.

Doesn't get any better. Proof of God is everywhere.

Yeah, proof of God is everywhere.

Yeah, Father, we thank you for David and we thank you that his

heart is still singing over the beauty of the gospel of Jesus

Christ and we pray that you would meet him in the place that

he is a prayer of blessing on on every part of his life.

We pray you administer to to Carol as well.

Father, we thank you for the life that is being lived that

magnifies Jesus Christ. Lord, we do pray for healing for

day. We pray that he would have many

more years of life on this planet, but Lord, we thank you

that he is in your hands and He knows it.

Continue to magnify yourself through him.

We thank you. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Thanks brother. Bless you, Erwin McManus.

Probably inspired by the movie Braveheart.

You know William Wallace, he said.

You know, the real tragedy is not that we might die young, but

that we might live to old age and not truly live.

Jesus Christ is calling every single one of us to life, to the

fullness of life in Him. Are you alive in Christ?

Are you have you crossed from death or life?

Are you experiencing that life? Maybe there's a pulse but you're

barely breathing. Maybe you're bodies, maybe

spiritual bodies is growing a little bit cold.

How do we restore those vital signs?

Just wanna close. Just with just a couple of

things. First of all #1 bar none.

Absolutely critical. We need to, if we're in that

place where we see more signs of spiritual death and spiritual

life, we need to call a code blue.

If you're, if you're from the medical community, you know, a

cold code blue is like this is a critical medical emergency that

requires immediate attention. Like it's not something that can

be pushed off. It's like now something has to

be done and I'm going to turn to the one who can heal me, and

that is the Lord Jesus Himself. And to call on his name, to call

on his name to give you life, to breathe new life into you,

that's number one. That's number one.

Maybe it means seeking out the council of another wise believer

and just to process these things together.

But do something now and do not focus on the behaviors.

OK, I need to. I better read my Bible more.

I better be more generous. I need to, you know what?

That's the outward stuff. That stuff comes as a result of

the desires that change in our heart.

We need to recognize that there are desires in our life that

militate against these desires. Getting the Word out, knowing

Christ more, loving other people.

There are other desires that we have that rival those desires,

and those are the desires we need to put on the altar.

We need to acknowledge them and confess them and turn from them

and ask for God's healing from them.

That's where change happens. That's when we crossover from

life to death. That's when new spiritual life

is breathed into us. So we what we need to do is take

the the medicine of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need to hear that word of Christ and believe it, that He

loves you, that He cares for you, that He knows you, that He

knows exactly what your struggle is, and that He has clothed

himself with flesh and has lived the life that we were intended

to live. But all of us feel miserably at

doing it. And He has had all of our sins

nailed to the cross with Him, and He's brought them to death.

And He has risen from the dead to conquer sin and death, to

make a way for us to experience new life for all of us who put

our trust in Him. No condemnation, not a sin being

counted against us. We have the approval of our

heavenly Father, and it requires nothing on our end to do.

No works can get that. It's a gift of eternal life.

Let that gospel captivate you. Don't just hear from me.

Get seriously read a few places in the Bible.

Just recommend a few places. Romans chapter 8 might be a good

Romans 8 · chapter mention

passage to reflect on Romans 8. Another one, art preached on it

before Ephesians chapter 1 and two, another great place to

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

reflect on maybe John chapter 3. Reflect on these and allow God

John 3 · chapter mention

to speak to you and bring it to that place.

A full acceptance of him. Thank him, thank the God, the

Lord, celebrate him. Surrender your life to Him and

purpose to worship Him. Let's pray, Let's pray.

Father in Heaven, thank you for the gift of physical life, and

we thank you, Lord, for the gift of spiritual life to all who put

their trust in you. Bring us to that place of

fuller, deeper trust that we would be so inspired that we

would want to get the word out about Jesus.

Lord that we would want to know you more in the joy of walking

with you. And Lord, that we would have a

love for your people and a love even for our enemies.

There is a sign that heaven really has entered our heart.

Call us to life, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.