Experiencing Joy of Life

The main ideas from this information are: - The book of Philippians is about joy and rejoicing, being like Jesus Christ. - The Apostle Paul's life was filled with hardships and trials but he found joy in his relationship with Jesus Christ. - True joy is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ and is a gift from the Holy Spirit. - Paul was confident in the Gospel and knew that his trials would turn to his salvation through prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. - Christians today need to be confident in their faith and have experienced trials in order to truly know and experience joy. We're looking at the book of Philippians. And Philippians is about, which we have entitled this series, Rejoicing with the Mind of Christ. And the Philippians is all about joy. It's rejoicing. It's being like Jesus Christ. And today I've entitled the message Experiencing Joy in Life. And so when we come to this, in order to really fully understand and comprehend these few verses that we're going to look at this morning, I want us to go back to the Apostle Paul. And when we go to the Apostle Paul, I want to go back to his salvation. And while we do this this morning, I want you to go back to your salvation. To go back to that time and that place when you asked Jesus Christ to come into your heart. And then I want you to view your life from the time of your salvation until today. When you study the life of Paul, you go to the book of Acts, and you find out in Acts 9 where Paul was saved on the road to Damascus. And there, all of a sudden, we see that he was on the process of killing Christians as they were trying to expand the church of Jesus Christ and the gospel message. And he was going to go put a stop to that, but yet, while he was on that road to Damascus, Jesus Christ come to him. And we see there that Jesus Christ, that encounter ended up Paul giving his life to Jesus Christ. And he ends up going over to Simon's house. And before you even get out of chapter 9, Paul is having to escape for his life because of the Jews when they found out that he has given his life to Jesus Christ. They didn't know if they could trust it or not. And so, they're now trying to kill him. And they end up slipping him out by night and sneaking him out of the city. And so, Paul then, in chapter 11, he turns to the apostles. And the apostles end up rejecting him. They did not accept him that was there. And so because of that and because of fear and other things that had gotten into their heart, Paul ends up going down to Antioch. And there at Antioch, he begins to serve. They're more receptive of him there. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit moves upon the hearts of the people. And they end up separating him and Barnabas for the work of missions, for going forth into all of the world and establishing churches. And so we see Paul and Barnabas set out on that first missionary journey. And if you remember back in that first missionary journey, there were jealous Jews that were following Paul around. They were publicly contradicting him. They were accusing him of blasphemy. They were stirring up mobs of people against the apostle Paul. And matter of fact, when he got to Lystra, they finally got a big enough mob that they actually carried Paul outside of the city of Lystra. And there they stoned him and left him for dead. But God had a different plan and God raised him up. And he goes on from there. It doesn't get a whole lot better. That's just the first year of his salvation and the first few years. And you go to 2 Corinthians and all of a sudden, he tells in 2 Corinthians all these things that he had to endure and all the things that he had suffered. He says, Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. In labors, more abundant. In strikes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent. In deaths, oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty strikes, save one. Three times was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings, often. In perils of water. In perils of robbers. In perils of mine own countrymen. In perils by the heathen. In perils in the city. In perils in the wilderness. In perils in the sea. In perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness. In watching, often. In hunger and in thirst. In fastings, often. In cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. As poor, yet making many rich. As having nothing, and yet possessing all things. And man, when you look at Paul's life, Paul says that he writes the book of Philippians. He writes that he is filled with joy. And continues to rejoice. And will continue to rejoice. As we look at this passage of Scripture this morning, sorrow is what I believe actually created this tremendous joy in the life of Paul. As Christians, a lot of times we end up, we don't want to pray for patience, right? We don't want trials and tribulations. We don't want heartache to come into our life. We want everything to be grand and glorious and just exactly the way that we want it and that we desire it. But that's not always the case. And when we see the Apostle Paul, it's only when the world begins to collapse, bringing all of its worldly negativity, all of its sorrow, that our faith can then begin to increase and we're drawn into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Because it's in that deeper pit, it's that deeper anguish and trials and tribulations that Jesus Christ demonstrates His faithfulness and His compassion. That He is always there. He will never leave us nor forsake us. And as we look at this passage of Scripture this morning, true joy is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And the reason so many people don't have joy today is because there is no relationship with Jesus Christ. And we have to understand that joy is a gift from the Holy Spirit. And if joy is a gift from the Holy Spirit, it also is a fruit of that Holy Spirit. And this is where we left off last week. In Philippians 1 and verse 18, Paul said, "...what then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." In other words, we saw last week that Paul was facing these perils from people that were jealous of him, that was envious of him, but yet they were preaching Christ, but they were still using that message of Christ to try to destroy Paul. There was also those people that was there. The people that was coming against Paul, but yet there were some that preached Christ because of Paul and because of his boldness. And Paul said it didn't matter either way as long as Christ is being preached. You remember in Philippians 1 and verse 5, he says, "...for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Paul lived his life for the Gospel. And the church at Philippi fellowshiped in that Gospel. They were partners in that. They were on the same wainting leap. They were in the same desire that was there. And Paul was confident that guess what? That their salvation that had begun in their life would go through the process of sanctification to where God would be able to complete what He started in their life. You go down to verse 12 of Philippians 1, and Paul said, "...but I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out unto the futherance of the Gospel." Paul didn't focus on the situation. Paul didn't focus on his circumstances. What was he focusing on? The futherance of the Gospel. That's what was important to the apostle Paul. He goes on in verse 17. And he said, "...but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel." Not only did Paul live the Gospel, not only did he preach the Gospel, but he defended the Gospel. He was all in when it came to the Gospel and Jesus Christ. He told the church at Corinth what the Gospel was, because sometimes we get confused on this idea of the Gospel. He told them in chapter 15 and verse 1, he says, "...I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." And that is the Gospel, that Christ died for our sins. We are sinners. Brother Morris brought an excellent job at our Sunday school this morning filling in for me to kind of save my voice for preaching this morning, but he reminded us that we don't seek God. God seeks us. And we see here that the Gospel is Christ died for our sins. We were sinners and He was holy, but yet He gave His life for us while we are sinners. And so in order to have salvation, the Gospel only becomes good news when you receive it. And so we repent of our dead works. We repent of our sins. And we have faith toward Jesus Christ. And so Paul is rejoicing in the fact that Christ is being preached. Christ is being preached. And so when he thinks about this and this joy that he has experienced in his life, the first thing when he thinks about the preaching of Christ, the first thing that he has is confidence. Confidence. I think in order for us to experience joy in life, we need Christians today that are confident. What do we mean by confident? Well, look at what he says in verse 19. He starts with these words. He just commended them. I'm glad that they are preaching Christ. I rejoice in the fact that Christ is being preached. But then look at what he says in verse 19. For I know, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. For I know, absolute knowledge, unequivocal to nothing else. Paul says, I know. This is a matter of fact. This is a matter of experience. This is a matter of I have put my life down on the line for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God has always delivered me. His Word has never come back void. This type of knowledge, to be able to say, for I know, is a knowledge that is only found in a satisfied conviction. In other words, you don't know like this unless you have experienced this. Unless you have been through it. And we need Christians today that have been through the trials, that have been through the fires, that have put the Gospel out there and have seen the results that are competent of their conviction. The only satisfied conviction that we have is found in the Word of God. We can only trust the Word of God. And notice, it's competent, first of all, is in the preaching of Christ. Notice Paul is rejoicing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is rejoicing in the fact that he now is in prison. He is at Rome, but why is he there? He is there because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And now what is he doing? He is defending that Gospel with his life. How do you defend the Gospel? He continues to preach the Gospel. He continues to live. You can't quiet me on the Gospel. So what is this? This needs to be solved. Notice he says there, that for I know this. What is this? What does he know in this? Paul's present circumstances. That's what he's talking about. For I know this. This. The being in prison. The trouble that is present in Paul's life. The change that is present in Paul's life. The causing problems from jealousy in Paul's life. His present imprisonment. All of the difficulties that Paul is experiencing right now. All of the adversities in his life. Everything that brought Paul to where he is right now in a Roman prison for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of this, he says, will turn to my salvation. Now when we see the word salvation, of course, being Baptist, we immediately think about that repentance from dead works and faith toward God. We know that Paul was already saved. He's not saying that I had to experience all of this defeat, all of these trials and tribulations, and I know that if I just keep living for God and keep working, that I'm going to be saved. That's not what Paul is talking about here. This word salvation actually has to do with deliverance. And he's saying I will be delivered from my present circumstances. And this is not going to bring me down. This is not going to quiet me. This is not going to silence me. And so it has to do with deliverance from his present affliction. If you remember a little while back, when we studied the past, the present, and the future work of Jesus Christ, and we saw that salvation comes in the past where Jesus Christ died for our sins, and if we will believe through faith, then we shall be saved. That's what He has done for us in the past. But in the present, there's this process of sanctification. This process where Jesus Christ, we have been saved, our spirit is now saved, but guess what? We're still in a fleshly body. And so sanctification is where God does not only want our spirit to be saved, but He also wants to save our body and our soul. This sanctification process. And Paul talked about it a lot. Beating this flesh and this objection. Helping it to follow to His Spirit that is there. But then we talk about the future work of salvation, and that's glorification. When we see Jesus Christ, we shall be like Him because our soul will now be saved. Our body will be given a new body. This flesh will be passed away and done away with. And so sanctification is being set apart for the confirmation of the image of Jesus Christ. Glorification is that final and complete salvation of our soul by being in the presence of Jesus Christ. And so Paul is looking to that future promise of His Word. Paul is taking all of the Word of God and he is realizing that everything that he is going through right now, everything that he is experiencing, is temporary. Notice what he says in Job. He says the same exact phrase that's in Job. Job said, He shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite shall not come before me. And that's why I read about Job this morning, because Job's life all of a sudden went from doing really well to going really bad really, really quick. As a matter of fact, if you noticed it this morning, one messenger would come and bad things would happen and only one person would escape. They would get to Job while they're telling the message, and another messenger would escape a bad situation. And it was just one thing after another after another after another. But Job said, guess what? I came into this world naked and naked I shall return, but I'm not going to turn my back on God. Because God promises in His Word that He is faithful to the righteous. He's going to be there for us. And so Job uses this, He shall be my salvation. In other words, He shall be my Deliverer. Jesus Christ is going to deliver Job. And you read through them 40 chapters and you get to the last chapter and you realize what does God do? God does not only restore Job, but He restores him sevenfold. Seven times what he had lost. And so all through the entire Bible, all through Job, it teaches us that God will deliver the righteous. He's going to take care of us. He's going to provide for us. And this principle is all through the Old Testament. You can read through the Psalms and over and over it says the Lord delivers the righteous. The Lord protects the righteous. The Lord saves the righteous. Over and over and over again. And that is confidence right there. That is confidence in the Word of God that if we are living for God and we are doing what we're supposed to for God, God will deliver us. And Paul said, there's where my confidence is at. It is in the preaching of Jesus Christ which is backed up by the Word of God. And so Paul knew that the Word of God would come to pass. He believed it with all of his heart. He believed that the eternal purpose and sovereignty of God, that God would complete His work. One of these days, I am going to be absent from this body and be present with the Lord. We have to have confidence in the Word of God. We are just pilgrims passing through. This world is not our home. God has something better. John 14, if I go. And he did. He says, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also. Paul had confidence in that. And so Paul didn't look at his present circumstances and situations. Paul was looking at the big picture. He was having confidence in the preaching of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, he said in verse 6 of chapter 1, he says, being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God has a plan. God has a purpose. And we are a part of that plan and that purpose. It may not look like what we want to look like. You know, when God calls us to go into the mission field, it may not be all success and starting churches and everything else. There may be some prison. There may be some beating. There may be some shipwrecks. There may be some stonings that are there. But not only is Paul confident in the preaching of Christ, but he's confident in the prayers of the people. If that alone, just the Word of God, was all that we had, I believe it's enough for us to have joy and experience joy in this world. But Paul didn't stop there. No, look at what he says. He goes on in v. 19. He says, I know that this shall turn to my deliverance, my salvation, through your prayer. Through your prayer. God works His purposes through the prayers of people. See, God says prayer is important. Prayer is necessary. Does God know all things? Yes, but guess what? The prayers of righteous people change and work the heart of God. James tells us, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man does what? Aveleth much. See, it's prayers. You go through and you look at God. And you look at His judgment in the Old Testament. It was man's prayer that would change the heart of God. In 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, he said what? If my people, which are called by my name, will do what? Humble their selves, seek my face, and what? Pray! Pray! I will then do what? I will forgive them. And I'll change the course of history. I'll change what's going on. And so Paul believed in prayer. I think sometimes as Baptists, we kind of believe in prayer, but we're not really confident or convicted with prayer, right? We kind of do it as a casual thing. But James says the prayers of a righteous man aveleth much. We need to have confidence in the prayer of people. In Romans 15, verse 30, he says, I beseech you, brethren, Paul writing this, is for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. In other words, there's a lot of things that the church at Rome could do for Paul. But Paul said, here's the most important thing that you can do, is pray. Pray for me. I'm out there. I'm being bold. But you know what? When I'm being stoned, it's hard to be bold for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When I'm being imprisoned, boldness wants to step aside. Fear wants to reign. But listen, we have the prayers of each other. And so Paul's confidence, his joy in life, comes from his confidence in the preaching of Jesus Christ. His confidence comes in the prayers of the people. But notice the third thing. His confidence comes in the provisions of the Spirit. Notice what he says in verse 19. He says, For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Supply means all of the provisions. All of the help that Paul needs. All of the help that you need in order to be confident in this life, to know God's will for your life, to be bold in God's will, is provided by the resources of the Holy Spirit. And that is all we need in life. The Word of God tells us what we should do. The prayers of the people encourages us to be bold. But the Holy Spirit gives us the power. He gives us the resources. And so Paul says, my confidence is in the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit, he mentions, there's a Holy Spirit that is given of God, and there's a Holy Spirit that is given of Jesus Christ. Both of these are mentioned because both of these are part of the Trinity. But notice here, this is the Spirit that is given by Jesus Christ. Personally, if you go back to John 14, you remember that Jesus Christ said, I will send the Comforter. I will send someone just like Me, someone of Me, but different from Me. In other words, I am in a body. I am bound to everything of this world. But I'm going to send you the Spirit. He's not bound. And that Spirit is going to be able to supply everything that you need. Paul goes on in Galatians and he gives this list of the fruit of the Spirit. Because the Spirit is upon us. He said the Spirit is love. If you look at that word love, it's agape love. It's the love that causes us to love our enemies. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That's the love that we're talking about. That's not a love you can create. That's not a love that you can build up. That's not a love that you can do or extenuate. No, that is a love that only comes as a result of the Holy Spirit being upon your life. And the very next thing that he mentions, notice, after our love, is joy. Joy. Joy. You know why some of us don't have joy? It's because we're not living by the Spirit. You know, that's why it says be careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit or quench the Holy Spirit. Because guess what? If the Holy Spirit is grieved or quenched in your life, there is no agape love. There is no joy. There is no peace. There is no longsuffering. There is no gentleness, goodness, faith. See, all of the things that God gives us in life, all of the affliction, all of the tribulation, everything that we go, He says the Spirit is there to supply you with peace. The Spirit is there to give you longsuffering. The Spirit is there to make you gentle. The Spirit is there to make you kind. The Spirit is there for your faith to trust and rely on Jesus Christ. As a Christian, we have an unlimited supply of resources at our disposal. And yet, we don't even realize it. We don't even acknowledge it. Paul is in prison after everything that has happened to him. And he says, I rejoice and I will continue to rejoice. No matter what happens or if it gets better or if it gets worse, I'm going to continue to rejoice for I know my confidence is in the preaching of Jesus Christ. My confidence is in the prayers of the people. My confidence is in the provisions of the Holy Spirit. In Zechariah 4 and verse 6, He answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Paul says, I'm not doing what I'm doing because of my power. I'm not doing what I'm doing because of my abilities. I am here doing what I'm doing because of the Holy Spirit. He has given me everything that I need to go through this life. If you remember back in Ephesians, when we studied Ephesians 3 and verse 20, Paul said, For unto Him that is able to do is exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Folks, we can have confidence in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will give you anything that you need and everything that you need in order to have joy in this life. And so Paul was confident in this. But notice what happened. Because of his confidence, it turned to courage. Notice the courage of Paul. He goes on in verse 20, According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Paul did not live for Paul. You see the difference? Why Paul has joy and we have sadness? Paul wasn't living his life for Paul. Paul was living his life for Jesus Christ. Notice what he says here. Paul says whether I am released from prison or whether I am killed in prison, guess what? Jesus Christ still gets glorified and magnified in my body. Because guess what? If I get released, what do you think Paul's going to do if he gets released from prison? He's going to continue to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, isn't he? He's going to continue to make missionary journeys. He's going to continue to establish churches. Why? Because that's who Paul was. That's what Paul was called to do. And that's what he did with all of his might and with all of his power. And guess what? He said, well, what happens if I die? What happens if I actually become a martyr and they kill me for the Gospel of Jesus Christ? He said, guess what? Whether I live or whether I die, Jesus Christ is still magnified. See, Paul believed so much and he had so much confidence in the preaching of Jesus Christ, in the prayers of the people, in the provisions of the Holy Spirit, that guess what? Nothing was going to deter him from living for them things. And the fact that he was willing to die for it proved where his faith and loyalty lay. You know, really, think serious for just a minute and really think for a minute. What would you really be willing to die for? What hill would you give your life up for? You know, we talk about it in America that when they start taking our freedoms away, when they start doing this or they start doing that. I've been listening to this for 50 years now, right? That man, they're not going to do this. They're not going to do that. But guess what? We've just about regulated all of our freedoms and all of our stuff, right? But nobody is rising up. We talk about it. We get frustrated. But really and truly, what would we give our life for? Something that really matters to us. Something that I would give my life to protect my family. I would give my life for my family. And so notice what happens here. Whether Paul is put to death, which could also be God's will, or whether Paul could be released could also be God's will, right? We have two opposites, two extremes that either one of them could be God's will. But Paul says what? Whichever way this turns out, I am going to continue to preach Jesus Christ. Either I'm going to preach it in my body, or I'm going to preach it through my testimony because people are going to know why I died. For the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then he makes this statement in v. 21, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Something really neat about this passage of Scripture, and if you're using a King James Bible, you'll see it. If you look at that verse of Scripture in the Bible, it's also done here because I quoted this exactly from King James. You just can't see it really in this font. But the two is's are italicized. And what's neat about it is is in the King James, when you see an italicized word, what that means is there's actually not a Greek word for that word. And so when you look at this verse, Paul does not use any verbs in this verse. And so the authors, we don't understand language. What did our teachers teach us in school? In English. In order to have a complete sentence, you have to have a subject and you have to have a verb, right? If you don't have a subject and you don't have a verb, then it's not proper English. And so Paul is not using proper English. So when they did and translated the King James Bible, they put it in proper English. And they said in order for us to make this proper English, we've got to give it a verb. And so we're going to give it the is. But what Paul is really saying here and what Paul is literally saying is for to me, living is Christ. Living Christ, dying gain. Living Christ, dying gain. There is no verb there. This is his entire life. If I'm living, then it's for Christ. If I'm dying, it's for gain. That is Paul's life. That's the only two things that Paul focused on or looked at. He doesn't mean Christ is the source of his life, even though Christ is the source of his life. He doesn't mean that Christ lives in him even though Christ does live in every one of us. He doesn't mean that Christ controls him even though that is true. He doesn't mean that Christ wants him to submit to Him even though that is true. And that's Paul in the Word of God. He doesn't mean that Christ wants Him to submit to Him. He simply means living is completely summed up in Christ. My life is Christ. My death is gain. So listen, he says in life, it's Christ, but in death, there's something even better than Christ. It's gain. It's even bigger and better than that. How in the world could Paul say this? We fear death so much. We fear dying. We fear getting sick. We fear all of this in our life. And I'm not ready for death. I'm not looking forward to it. Paul is not ready to die. Paul is not standing up there cocky. Why don't you go ahead and kill me? We'll find out that next week. But Paul doesn't fear death because he knows there's something better. Paul's life... Get this, because this is where we're going to find the whole key to joy in our life. The whole key to joy in our life is Paul. His life was consumed with Jesus Christ. And Paul knew that death would actually relieve him of all of the burdens of this life and free him completely to glorify Jesus Christ. How many times have you heard it said, what are we going to do in heaven? What are we going to do in heaven? We're going to glorify Jesus Christ, right? It tells us in Revelation that He built this beautiful city and this earth and there is no need for a sun or a moon because why? The light of Jesus Christ. And what are we going to do? We are going to glorify Him for all of an eternity. Can you imagine being able to glorify Jesus Christ with no pain? No sickness. No family. No sin. No job. None of the things that we have in this world that hold us back. You know, this morning, it was everything I could do not just try to sing. I mean, I wanted to, guess what? I wanted to make sure my throat held out. I wanted to make sure my energy and my stamina held out because there's nothing more important than the preaching of Jesus Christ. But guess what? I wanted to open up. I wanted to do that. And guess what? When I'm out of this body one of these days, I'm going to be able to glorify God. I ain't going to have to worry about lunch time or supper time. I'm not going to have to worry about, oh, it's my bedtime. No, around the clock, for all of eternity, I'm going to be able to glorify Jesus Christ. And so Paul said what I'm doing in my life is guess what? It's limited. It's controlled because of the fleshly body and because of the people and the stuff that's around me. But one of these days when I'm freed from this body, he said that's going to be dame. That's going to even be better because I'm going to be able to do what I am doing right now in my life with an exponential multitude. So will Paul live? Or will he die? At the time the Philippians were reading this letter, they didn't know. Is Paul going to live? Is God going to deliver him from prison? Or is Paul going to die in prison? But guess what? And we fight with that question, right? Can you imagine us receiving this letter and Paul writing to us? I don't know the verdict yet. Paul didn't know God's will. He didn't know if God was going to release him or God was going to have him put to death. He didn't know. And I think he leaves the Philippians here with no answer because guess what? Ultimately, it really don't matter. Does it? Does it really matter whether Paul lives or whether Paul dies? The only thing that mattered to Paul was Jesus Christ. That was his focus. That was his purpose. When he was alive, he focused and fulfilled. Remember what he wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy? I have fought a good fight, right? I have fought as hard as this body would let me. I can just imagine. We see these pictures of Paul, and he looks kind of nice in these pictures that we see. But you think about a guy that had been beaten with rods three times, that had been stoned by people and dead. Can you imagine the scars and the battle wounds and stuff that would have been on the Apostle Paul? The shipwreck. He would have spent three days in the ocean trying to survive and live. Have you ever been on the beach for three hours? With the salty water and the sun and everything? Can you imagine how weathered his skin and everything was out there in the deep sea fighting for his life for three days? And he said all of this focus was on Jesus Christ. The only thing that mattered to Paul was Christ. Paul wanted Christ to be preached and the Gospel to go forth to all of the world. That's all that mattered to Paul. What do you think this morning would our community, what do you think our church would look like or be like or the impact that we would be having if just one of us would strip away everything of our life except Jesus Christ? I'll be honest with you this morning, because I'm finding the older I get, the better it is to be honest. Y'all pay me full time to preach and minister the Gospel. But guess what? There's a lot of areas that I could still strip to be a better minister of the Gospel. What do you think would happen if just one of us would strip everything of this life and say for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain? When you look at that verse of Scripture, take out that word Christ. And honestly, look into your heart this morning as I've been looking into mine this week and stripping and getting rid of some stuff. Some of us may need to put multiple blanks there. What are we living for? Why don't you get up in the morning? Why don't you go and do what you do? For me to live is money. For me to live is my career. For me to live is my family. For me to live is my grandkids. For me to live is my vacations. For me to live is my health. Anything that we put in that verse besides Jesus Christ... You know what James says? James says, "...to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not to him, it is sin." Paul said living is Christ. Living is Christ. Dying is gain. What are you living for? As we stand, we have a verse of invitation this morning. As we sing, Brother Philip, just as I am, just as you are this morning, what are you living for? What are you willing to die for this morning? As we sing.