Philippians, Gospel perseverance through gospel partnership - The Confidence of Living for Christ - Php 1:18b-26

We're in Philippians. And so if you get out your Bibles,

that's what we're going to jump right into. Welcome to

The Roots, where it's all about Jesus. We love God.

We love people. We reach the lost and we make disciples.

So we're going to be jumping right back into a

series going through Philippians. I believe we have the proper slide.

Is that right? There it is. There we go. Looking

at gospel perseverance through gospel. partnership. Thank you guys. You're champions.

Appreciate it. You guys, you're joining at a great time

because we only are a couple weeks into this thing.

It's already been such a fruitful, awesome series to dig into,

to be able to dig into this New Testament letter.

And so if you do not have Bibles or a

Bible to follow along with us, please go grab one

from the lobby and we would love to have you

follow along with us. It is going to be on

the screen, but it is much more important that you

would have a Bible in your hands. And then Just

take it home with you. And that will be your

Bible that you bring to church, where you leave in

the car so that you always have one to bring

to church. But we're going to be in Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

And we're going to be starting in the second half

of verse 18. Which is kind of a funny place

to stop, but that's how we broke it up. And

so we're going to open up our Bibles to Philippians.

And then I'm actually going to ask if you would

all please stand while we read God's word together. so

that we can show God reverence and recognition for his word.

We're going to pray and then we will be seated

and get into the rest of this message today. Let's read. Yes,

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 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'm able to live

in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet

which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm 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.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that as we

hear your word, that you would do a work in

each and every one of us. That your heart, or

that our hearts, Lord God, would be softened. That our

eyes would see and our ears would hear your beautiful

and wonderful voice. Help your word not return void this day, Lord,

and your people in your church. We are grateful, Father,

that you love us, that you care for us, that

you give us Christ. Please be with us during this time.

In Jesus' name, everyone said, amen. Would you please be seated?

So we're going to start today with a question. Kind

of a small question. Do you ever wonder how your

life is going to turn out? Marriage, where it's headed,

your life, what will be made of it, what is

going to happen to your children, where are they going

to go, who are they going to become. Your career,

your dreams, the things that you're chasing, the things that

you're working towards, things you're pouring energy and time into.

into all of those things, how are those things going

to turn out? Some of us might find ourselves in

very difficult circumstances. It could be our marriage for so

many reasons. It could be an unexpected diagnosis of our health.

It could be a chronic thing that we've been living

with for some time It could be wayward children. Some

of us maybe are at a crossroads. Maybe we have

some exciting new opportunities. Maybe we have an opportunity to

move to a different place. Maybe new needs are showing

up that need to be addressed. New opportunities for continued growth.

Maybe some of you are looking forward to the years

that you have left. And you're wondering, what am I

going to do with all this time? What am I

going to do with all, maybe this wealth that I've

amassed over the years? Maybe, what am I going to

do with the strength that I have left? What am

I going to do with these years that I've learned

so many things? valuable lessons about this life. All of

us at one time or another will find ourselves in

a position just like this, wondering to ourselves, how are

things going to turn out for us? But we're not

just wondering that about ourselves. We might be looking around

at other people's lives and wondering, how are their lives

going to turn out? Maybe we're looking at the person

who's doing everything wrong. We're like, I'm very curious to

see how that person's gonna turn out. Maybe we see

someone on a trajectory of doing all the right things,

and we wonder to ourselves, I wonder where they're gonna

end up. How are things gonna turn out for them? Well,

for the Philippians, they're asking a very similar question. They're

looking at Paul's life. Someone who looks like he's doing

everything right, And yet things seemed to be looking like

they weren't going to turn out for him at all.

Paul the apostle, the church planter, this great evangelist, this

great sinner to redeemed saint, taking the good news to

the known world at the time, is now locked up.

He's in prison. He's in jail in Rome, standing or

waiting to stand trial and The question on everyone's mind

would be, how in the world is the gospel going

to advance now? If this is the type of treatment

that we can expect, how are we going to get

this gospel out? Paul is in prison. This would have

seemed like a major setback to the gospel's advancement. But

as we saw last week, Paul says the opposite. Paul says,

in fact, that his circumstances haven't been a hindrance to

the gospel. That actually, in spite of the circumstances, it's

actually working for the gospel's good. That because of what's

happened to him, the gospel is actually spreading, as we

looked at, through unlikely means. Not only that, but instead

of discouraging others from preaching the gospel, it's actually emboldened others.

which is usually the opposite reason of why you would

lock people up or harm them or try to kill

them for speaking the truth. You're like, if we will

treat this one guy poorly, surely that will shut everyone

else up. They think that maybe this is the way

that they could hurt the church. But funny enough, God

is awesome. And God has created the world in a

very interesting way. that those who seem to think that

they would hurt the church, God uses those things to

actually advance his truth and his kingdom. Think of the

many martyrs through church history who were jailed and killed

brutally for their faith, but it doesn't stop it. Instead,

it causes it to spread. Even today, we can think

of prominent voices or Christians who are emboldened as they

hear about Christians being persecuted in different cultures. Prominent voices,

Charlie Kirk being murdered in broad daylight for speaking. But

this has never been a hindrance to what God has

planned to do. But in fact, it has grown the

confidence of other people To live more boldly. Look at

this in verse 14. We looked at this last week.

It says, and most of the brothers have become confident

in the Lord by my imprisonment. Are much more bold

to speak the word without fear. That is incredible. Some

out of good intent and others out of bad intention.

But nonetheless, Christ is being preached and this brings nothing

but joy to Paul's outlook. So today, today's message is titled,

The Confidence of Living for Christ. The Confidence of Living

for Christ. And we're going to look at three major sections.

It says, The Confidence... In honoring Christ. The conviction to

live for Christ. And the consequence of living for Christ.

We'll get back to those a little bit later. So

if you missed them here, we'll be back. And I

believe as we look at these three sections, we're going

to see what I believe would be the main argument

from this text. And that is, if we live to

honor Christ, we can be confident in how things will

turn out. If we are confident, or if we live

to honor Christ, we can be confident in how things

will turn out. What are things that you are sure of?

Things that you are certain of in your life? I

think if most of us are honest, that's not a

long list. Which is why we have a lot of issues,

we have a lot of problems, a lot of anxiety.

There's a reason it's a famous saying that nothing is guaranteed.

Or that the only certain thing is that nothing is certain.

But I have good news for you. That isn't completely true.

There are some things that are guaranteed. And the only

reason we can know that is because the one who

made everything, the creator, who does not lie and who

does not change has made promises and guarantees. And we can,

by God's grace, he's given them to us freely in

his word. We can find them in his word. And

it's because of that that I would argue that the

only person who can be sure of anything is a Christian.

The only person who can be sure of anything is

a Christian. That is someone who knows and believes what

God has said. And more specifically, it's a person who

has repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ

who died for their sins, was raised on the third day,

who sits on the throne and thrown as Lord until

he returns to judge the living and the dead. We're

told that for any believer, for any and every believer,

that God has given us a guarantee. We see a

little bit of a hint of this in verse 6

of chapter 1. You can see that if you look down,

it says, Paul is writing to the Philippians and says,

I am sure of this, that he who began a

good work in you will bring it to completion at

the day of Jesus Christ. But we also see it

more explicitly In Ephesians, let's look at this. It says,

Now listen to this. who is the guarantee of our

inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise

of his glory. The Holy Spirit that God has given

us is our guarantee of our future hope. Now why

this needs to be said is because if we're even

going to try and talk about confidence... which is literally

a compound word if you look at how it was

made up. Confidence is with faith. And so if we're

going to talk about why this is a thought that's

even possible, we're going to have to ground it in

why we know that things can be certain. The only

things that are guaranteed are the things that God has guaranteed.

And we're going to dig more into that next week.

But first we look at our first portion, the confidence.

In honoring Christ. The Philippians are concerned with what's happened

to Paul. But here in this text, Paul shows the

great confidence he has. And this is, it's almost comedic.

He's locked up. He's writing. And listen to this. Last

week we ended with rejoicing. This week it starts rejoicing.

with rejoicing. He says, yes, 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.

And that word deliverance can also be translated as salvation.

But it goes on. He's still got more to say.

He says, as it is my eager expectation and hope

that I will not be at all ashamed. But that

with full courage, it's like, okay, Paul, we get it. Like,

you're excited. Like, you are confident in your belief, in

the things that you are saying. But that with full courage,

now as always, Christ will be honored in my body,

whether by life or by death. Now, have you, like,

ever talked about anything in your life like that? That's

pretty confident language. He says, I know this is going

to turn out. He has this eager expectation and hope,

and he's full of courage in Christ. And there's a

degree that Paul sounds pretty sure that he knows he's

going to be let out of prison, especially as we're

going to see a little bit later in the text.

But then he kind of says something that sounds like

Paul's speaking on a broader scale. Because as the end

of the text shows, he says that what he's confident

about is that no matter what happens, no matter what

happens in his life, no matter how things turn out

for him, what does he say? Christ will be honored

by my body. Whether that means life or death. So

now we see Paul is thinking more broadly here. Paul

is so confident about how things are going to turn out.

And yet we get this statement that almost is making

it sound like Paul actually has no idea which way

it's going to go. Which is pretty awesome. Because that

just is what life feels like. I have no idea

which way things are going to go. And yet, it's

going to be okay. It's going to be alright. This

is exactly the point Paul has confidence that isn't reliant

on his circumstances. Paul has confidence based on something stronger

and more reliable. That is God's sovereign plan, period. God's

sovereign plan for Paul's life. God's intention in Paul's life.

Through the prayers of other Christians and the help of

the Spirit, Paul is confident of the work that God

is doing in his life and how things will turn out.

Paul is living in such a way that he knows

that whether it ends in his death or he's set

free to continue to live, that Christ is going to

be honored no matter what. That God is not only

sovereign over our life, but God has made promises to

those who honor him with their life. And this should

be great comfort to us who could be feeling in

a very similar season or a very similar way. Romans 8, 28.

And we know that for those who love God, what

does that say? All things. Can you guys say that?

All things. Work together for good. For those who are

called according to his purpose. That's such a sweet verse.

Now we're going to read a little bit more intense

one from Jesus himself. Listen to this, John 12. He says,

whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his

life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where

I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone

serves me, the Father will honor him. Paul is living

his life in such a way that no matter how

things are going, God is in control. He's determined the outcome,

and he is sure that no matter what, it will

be to the glory and honor of Christ. Could we

say that about ourselves? Is the current way that you

are living honoring Christ? If it wasn't already quiet in

this room. Could you look at your life and say

that whether in life or death, Christ will be honored?

The confidence that Paul has here is rooted in the

assurance that his life isn't going to be wasted. His

life is not going to turn out wrong if he's

living for Christ. Isn't that just so sweet to hear?

And one sense is so challenging. It's like, I can't today.

I should have stayed home. And in another sense, you're like,

I need these reminders. Every single one of us. We

cannot have the same assurance if we live for anything else.

But here's what I need you to hear. Paul's living

this way is not an accident. I'm going to say

that again. Paul's living this way isn't an accident. This

is intentional and purposed living. Paul is not accidentally good

or better at following or living to honor Christ. And

sometimes that's how we treat it. We'll see other people

who are following Jesus and be like, I mean, but

they just must be better at it. It must be

an accident. But Paul has something that every single one

of us need. Paul has conviction. Paul has conviction. I

believe this is just kind of another way of saying

real faith. If we look at Hebrews 11, 1, it says,

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the

conviction of things not seen. This is assurance in the

things you're hoping for, conviction about the things you can't

even see, like how things are gonna turn out in

the end. And that faith is real and should be

what marks every believer's life. That when other people see you,

they take notice. They're like, what's the deal? Your life

is chaos. Your life is a mess. Where's that hope

coming from? How are you okay? How are things still good?

What will you tell them? What answer would you have

to give? I would want to argue that conviction isn't

just some truths you believe. Because unfortunately, that's where most

of us feel comfortable to draw the line. I believe

the right things. A conviction isn't just truths you believe,

they're beliefs that move you. Conviction is such a strong

belief that it compels you to action, to not just

think differently, but to actually live differently. Which brings us

to Paul's conviction, and it's one of the greatest convictional

statements in the entire Bible. I will argue that point.

Paul's conviction is this. For to me, to live is

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

live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul explains this.

What it means to have the conviction to live for Christ.

When Paul looks at the future, he sees only two roads.

Paul has two options before him. He's so compelled by

his belief that his future only has two ways to go.

If he still has breath, he's living for Jesus. If

he dies, he's going to see him. Paul's whole life

is wrapped up in Christ. Paul loves Jesus. Paul serves Jesus.

And this isn't just something Paul says he does. Yeah,

I love Jesus. This is something Paul is really about

in his life. It's why he's in chains. It's why

he's locked up. When we look at our life, would

we say that we're living with the same belief and

conviction that Paul does? Or that Paul is at least

exemplifying here? Does what you say you believe actually line

up with the life that you live? Or are we

too scared of what living for Jesus would really look

like or cost us in this life? We're going to

dig more into that next week. You should still come

next week. Paul says if he's living, it's going to

be for Christ. And if he dies, it's only gain

because he gets to be with Christ. But I think, unfortunately,

we live our lives so opposite of this that this

text is crazy to us. We live for ourselves and

cling to life to the point that we're terrified of dying.

We do not view death as a game. We're terrified

of whatever's on the other side. And there is no

confidence in that. All that does is just really reveal

how miserable we are. How much we're just self-medicating with

whatever we can find for the moment until it loses

its taste and then we're on to the next thing.

We pour ourselves out wondering if we're giving ourselves anything

that will turn out right. Will any of this matter?

And when we give our lives for worthless and perishable things,

it's no wonder we're an anxiety-riddled people. We live our

lives for ourselves, unwilling to serve Jesus in a way

that will truly cost us anything. We'll try and serve

Jesus up until the point that he might ask us

to actually give up something or ask us to sacrifice

something that we value more than him. Apostles like to

give us sobering truths like this all the time. 1

John 2.17 says, and the world is passing away along

with its desires. So that's what we want We want

something that's going to pass away. You're putting your hope

and your pleasure and your joy in things that are

not going to last. It says, but whoever does the

will of God, does what? Abides forever. The apostles are

so confident of this fact that they tell us over

and over again not to settle for living for this life,

but to give our lives unto Christ, knowing that even

if it costs us our very life, that all we

can do is benefit from that. All we will get,

even if it costs us our entire life, is all

we will get is gain. Is that how we view

our life? Is that how we view our death? I

think one of the reasons we don't have the same

type of confidence that Paul has is that we are not,

in fact, living a life that honors Christ. That would

put me on edge, and it does. This should wake

us up to realize that we can be set free

to truly live for him. If we're truly living for him,

then no matter how dark things get in our life,

we can be sure that God will be honored in it. Okay.

Taking some deep breaths. Now I can go to sleep.

Because if we live in the body, it's going to

be for Christ. If we die... then we finally get

to receive the greatest reward of all. Being with Jesus.

I know we like to talk about mansions. I know

we like to talk about... about all the fun things

we'll get to do in heaven. The rewards, whatever that

looks like. But the greatest reward is that you get

to see Jesus. A man who gave his life for you.

who is nailed to a tree to pay for your

sins so that you would not have to pay for

them yourself. You'll get to look him in the eye.

You will get to see your Savior who loves you

and gave himself for you. But if we don't treasure

Jesus above all, that sounds terrible. If we don't treasure Jesus,

we will not care. That doesn't sound good enough. If

Jesus is not our greatest satisfaction, death will sound terrifying,

and I think it should. Instead, let's go on giving

our lives for the pleasures of this life until it's over.

That's all we can do. If Jesus isn't our greatest reward,

we'll never have the conviction or confidence that Paul has here.

Brothers and sisters, you need to treasure Christ more than

anything in your life. More than your very life itself.

Until you do, you and I will be miserable and

fearful in this life. But brothers and sisters, we are

promised such a greater way of living if we put

Christ first in our life. What does that look like practically? Well,

I believe Paul actually gives us a picture right here

in the text. We see Paul weighing the tension of

of these two realities. That if he lives, he's going

to make sure his life is given for Christ. But

he knows that when the day finally does come for

him to die, it's only going to be a gain.

Look at this. It's kind of funny. I like watching

Paul kind of be like an external processor a little bit,

but on paper. He says, if I'm to live in

the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet, which

shall I choose? I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between

the two. My desire, and I love that Paul's just

telling them, like, guys, this is much rather what I,

I would much rather be with Jesus. 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. That's crazy. the impact that Paul has in

the way that he's living his life. Not just for himself,

but on other people. Paul says if he lives, it

will be fruitful labor and beneficial to the church. If

he dies, he will get to be with Christ, which

he says here, it's what he truly desires. It would

be way better. And I like that he doesn't sugarcoat

that either. You know what I mean? He's just like, guys,

it really would be way better than all of this.

This is beneficial for you, but it would be so

much better to be with Christ. And he knows that

if he lives, it will be for the benefit to

the church. If we're honest, when we're wrestling with life,

are we ever thinking like this? Now, as I was

reading this text, that's what I was thinking there. Like,

Do I ever think like this? Is this ever the

tension that I'm dealing with? Do we live our lives

for Christ in such a way that we consider how

if we get to continue to live, it will be

for the benefit of Christ's church? Or that if we die,

we'll finally get to be with our treasured Savior? Weighing

the fact that if you died and went to be

with the Lord, which we would all rejoice in, Could

sound way more negative than I mean it to. We

love that you're here. Don't get distracted. If you depart

and go to be with Christ, would your church family

feel it? Not just emotionally, but in the part that

you play in the body. and being an instrument in

the Lord's hands for his church. Paul lived for Jesus,

which meant he lived for Christ's bride, the church, to

see it grow not just in number, but in maturity, holiness, knowledge,

and love for their Savior in his church. Paul has

the conviction that while he lives, this is what he's

going to be focused on. This is what he's going

to be giving himself to. When you wake up in

the morning, is it ever a thought that crosses your mind,

in my life today, how could I honor Christ by

being a benefit to his people? Texting a brother and sister, asking,

how could you pray for them? And then actually doing it.

Thinking about a hurting brother or sister, In our fellowship.

And finding a way that we can bless them that day.

Don't ask them. Just do it. Leading your family in

worship at home. Through God's word. Through prayer. Worshiping with

one another. Sharing the gospel with your co-worker or neighbor.

Hoping to see God's church continue to grow through the

saving gospel. By sharing the good news of Jesus. If

you call yourself a Christian, you are the church. Called

to be in fellowship with other Christians, that you would

help them. And that they would help you. And you

don't get to opt out. I'm going to start saying

that a lot more. You don't get to opt out.

Because we Christians think we get to opt out of

too many things. And really, we find that we just

end up opting out of the Christian life altogether. Let's

not do that. When Paul talks about the conviction to

live for Christ, that means his life is all about Jesus.

Jesus is the gravitational center of his life, meaning he

doesn't try to fit Jesus into his life. Where do

I have time for him? Instead, you figure out how

everything else fits into a life that is revolving around Jesus.

And really picture that for a second. Think about our

solar system. At the center we have our sun, and

circling around it are all these other objects in their

specific given places. What would you say your life circles around?

And where is Jesus? Because unfortunately... A lot of us

treat him like Pluto. He's way off in the distance,

and we don't even know what to do with him.

Is he a planet? Is he not a planet? I

don't know. But Jesus should be like the sun in

our life. Everything revolves around him. And why that's good

news is because Jesus at the center of your life

actually has the gravity to hold everything in place. To

keep you near him. To hold you. To give you

a confidence that you're not just going to fling off

into the abyss forever. But you will be kept near.

You can't afford to have Jesus all the way out there.

He needs to be what dictates your schedule. He needs

to be what dictates your life. He needs to be

what dictates your marriage, your parenting, and on and on,

your finances, your job, every single thing bringing into your mind,

what would Jesus think about this? What has he said

about this? How do I have my life conform to Christ?

Until our lives have something as stable, steady, and huge

at the center of it, our lives will be chaos

and uncertain because those other things in our life that

we try to make our lives revolve around don't have

the strength to hold us. They don't have the strength

to keep us. We need God's gravity in our life.

And the conviction to live for Christ, to live a

life that honors Him in everything is the only thing

that will give us the confidence that things will turn out.

Everything's in its right place. Because I'm following Him. I'm

trusting Him. I know He's leading me. I'm submitted to him.

I'm choosing him over myself. I'm choosing his ways and

his thoughts over my own. And why that's great is

because if I die, and when I die, and go

to him, I can just say, I just did what

you said. I know that's not what got me into heaven.

I was just doing everything I could in the place

that you put me, in the things that you gave me, Lord,

to honor you as you told me to. I think

there's a lot of confidence that comes with that. Not

in self-righteousness, but us going like, I'm not trying my

own way. I'm not trying the world's way and I'm

not trying to invent anything new. I'm just doing what

he said. I want to honor him. We see Paul

wrestling with this thought that things could go either way.

But Paul doesn't dread the future. He sees option A,

which would be a life continued to be lived for

Christ's honor or he will die and it will be

a gain for him. We should really meditate on this

verse this week and ask Christ to conform our lives

to be lived in this way. And then just start

living like it. Not to work for God's grace because

he gives that to us freely through faith in him,

but to work for God's glory in our good. Do

you ever think about that? There's been a new concept

to me recently. Working for God's glory. I want to

live my life in such a way that God is

being glorified in the things that I'm doing and pursuing.

I read a book about this stuff, so I didn't

come up with that idea. But it's just, it is

this working for God's glory and our own good. A

part of that is that good is our own confidence

and assurance of faith in him. And many places in

the Bible actually tells us that there are ways that

we can grow in assurance of our faith in salvation.

Isn't that amazing? Later in Philippians, Paul will say, therefore,

my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now, not only

in my presence, but much more in my absence, work

out your own salvation. with fear and trembling. And we

see in this bigger section, in 2 Peter, it says,

his divine power has granted to us all things that

pertain to life and godliness. He's equipped you and given

you everything you need. Through the knowledge of him who

has called us to his own glory and excellence, by

which he has granted to us his precious and very

great promises, so that through them you may become partakers

of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that

is in the world because of sinful desire. For this

very reason, listen to this, make every effort to supplement

your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge

with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness

and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love,

which is great because he's just like, there's work to

be done. We can keep growing in these things. He says,

for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they

keep you from being what? ineffective, or unfruitful in the

knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these

qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten

that he was cleansed from his former sins. And here

it is. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to

confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities,

you will never fall. For in this way there will

be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal

kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many of

us don't have the confidence because many of us realize

how hypocritical we are. But I want to help you.

Stop being a hypocrite. Stop being a hypocrite. Live for Jesus.

The reason many of us feel and are hypocrites is

because we are living double lives. We try and convince

ourselves that we're not, but we are. We want to

say we live for Christ while we live for ourself.

Which as long as we're double-minded, we are going to

be unstable in all of our ways. I want us

to have the conviction that Paul has here in this

text to be a people, to be a church who

treasure living for Christ and his church as the greatest

end we could give our lives to. And that we'd

be a people filled with hope and knowledge that when

our time does come to depart, that Christ will be

honored in it. So I also want to, I think

this is a helpful clarification. What it means to live

for Christ and honor Christ isn't just a singular pocket.

It's not a singular area. It's not a singular thing.

Honoring Christ is making your life all about Jesus. Do

you honor Christ in your marriage? Is that what you're seeking?

Why are you married? If you're already married, you don't

get a question like that. You just are stuck with it.

If you are married, why are you married? It should

be for the honor of Christ. Children should be for

the honor of Christ. Your work should be for the

honor of Christ. Your retirement should be for the honor

of Christ. Your energy, your money, your finances, your career,

the co-worker that you have to work with, your boss

that you get to work under. It's to honor Christ.

And I want to spend forever right here. But I'm

running out of time. In one sense, this can feel

really heavy or condemning if we aren't living lives like this.

And I think that's a good thing. The Spirit hopefully

is convicting us because I believe it's only the conviction

of the Holy Spirit that will lead us to live

lives of conviction for Jesus. That conviction is meant to

tell us, stop doing what you're doing and change. And

you don't have to do it in your own strength.

He's giving you the Spirit, remember? To conform you to Christ.

You're not doing it in your own strength or power.

And second, I believe God gives us scriptures like this

to wake us up, snap us out of our unfruitfulness,

and remember what it means to live and love the

Lord above all, which every person who calls Christ their

Lord is called to do. I believe so many of

us want to live lives of confidence and conviction like Paul,

but we are so scared of what it will cost us.

And maybe that's just because we're scared of what it's

going to cost. Maybe it's because we're lazy. Maybe. Maybe

it's because we're selfish. Those are just real sin problems

that we deal with. Which is why we need to

look to Christ, treasure Christ as our greatest good. And

part of those good purposes are not just personal benefit

to us, but how he's going to use you. How

he's going to use me to benefit and be an

instrument in his hand to be fruitful in his kingdom,

in his church. Which is the last thing we're going

to look at, and I need the band to come up, please.

The last thing we're going to look at is the

consequence of living for Christ. Now in our culture, consequence

usually is a very negative thing that we think about.

But all actions have consequences, good or bad. And Paul

here is so convinced that if he continues to live,

it is going to be to the benefit of the church.

And because he sees that as the best thing moving forward,

he is pretty convinced that he's going to be sticking

around for some more time so that he can be

of benefit to the church. Look at this, verses 25

and 26. 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. What's so striking about this

is what Paul is saying is if Paul sticks around,

it isn't going to be to make sure that he

can hit his bucket list items before he departs. He's

not like, I'm glad I get a couple more years.

I had some other things I kind of wanted to do.

Sneak those in before the buzzer sounds. That's not what

he says. That's not what he does. Paul says, if

I get to be around, I get to help God's church.

My life gets to be given for the benefit of

other believers. To the end that believers are growing in

their faith and joy in Christ. Will that be how

you spend your life? The consequence of life lived for

Christ is that you have given your life for something meaningful.

A life where you will be unashamed, confident in how

it will turn out. But there's a consequence for living

a life for the things of this world and our

own selfish desires and ends. If you live for anything

but Christ, you are living like that thing is God,

which is called idolatry. When you serve, when you live

to please your own and seek your own desires and

comforts above all things. You've made yourself God. There's only

room for one God. He's told us that. You will

be dethroned. You will not win and you do not

stand a chance. Christ will return and he will judge

every single one of us. And those who have put

their faith in him, he has taken the punishment for them.

But for all of those who stand shaking our fist

at our creator and the way that he's made us,

he's made us for his glory. He's made us to

serve and know and love and be loved by him.

But if we continue to live in our own ways,

we're living in just straight up rebellion against him. And

we will have to answer for that treason. We will

have to answer for that rebellion. This is another thing

that God guarantees. If you cling to Christ, the one

who paid for our sin, the one who gives us

righteousness and allows us to stand before God the Father,

holy and blameless, then when we have been shown such mercy,

how can we not but serve him as our greatest good?

That we are not our own, but have been bought

with a price. That if we are to live, it

will not be for ourselves, but as Paul says in Galatians,

look at this, he says, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who

lives in me. In the life I now live in

the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of

God who loved me and gave himself for me. So

as we reflect on what it means to live a

life that honors Christ, to have a life that is

lived under Christ, I want to give us three points

for application. And we're going to move through these fairly quickly.

Number one. We should grow in confidence as we live

with the conviction of our faith. So what disciplines or

practices do you have in place to cultivate and spur

on your convictions and understandings of the hope that we

have in Christ? The hope that we have by God's promises.

How are you cultivating a life that treasures Jesus as

your greatest joy? Second, A Christ-honoring life will result in

benefit to his church. If you somehow are honoring God

in your life, your marriage, your workplace, your kids, but

are not honoring him in a way that builds up

his church, I kind of don't believe you over here.

We are called to partner together. So how are you

giving your life to see the benefit of Christ's church?

Think about this. Christ loves his church. Christ gave himself

for his church. We should love what Jesus loves. We

should love Christ's people. It is our way of serving

and honoring him. Number three, because of all of these things,

we should rejoice. It's heavy today. But this is heavy

stuff we're dealing with. If we get these things into alignment,

if these things are gravitating in the right way, this

heavy stuff isn't just a condemning feeling. It's actually a

driving force in your life to live a life that

honors Christ. Because it will compel you. It will push

you forward. You won't have any other option but to

live for him. Stop standing underneath the weight, but stand

on top of it, and it's going to propel us

to be a people that love Christ with everything. The

beginning of this text tells us that it's in these

things that Paul has ample reason to rejoice because he's

so confident of how things are going to turn out.

No one can take that from him. It's what God

has guaranteed. If we live a life for Christ, it

will not be wasted. And because a life lived to

honor Christ, no matter the circumstances, we believe and know

that God will still use them. We have example after

example of him doing just that. Because God has given

us these promises, we have many reasons to rejoice. I

need us to know that if we live to honor Christ,

we can be confident in how things will turn out.

Would you please stand to your feet?