How We React to Affliction — Philippians 1

0:01 Of course, the of encouragement the last words of encouragement I get from Tammy today are, try not to review for twenty minutes. So, there goes my whole plan out the window. Tammy, if you could just get those out to the younger guys. Make sure Chase gets one and Mason. And where's Deanna?

0:26 There's Deanna. Get her one. They have an assignment. You know, I was going to say, I was waiting for that. Can I tell you, we just moved into the new high school at Westlake, and as we're supposed to box up when we were making the move, we're supposed to box everything up and label everything and what we wanted taken over and all that stuff?

0:56 So, I put a label on my overhead and the librarian comes around and she goes, Are you serious? Really? We're going to take one overhead projector over to the high school? And sure enough, I think I'm the only one. So, yes, I'm a little bit I don't know.

1:12 I like the overhead. There is a function that I use at school, and I don't use the overhead that much anymore, but I there's a function that you can shade what you want to see and what you don't want to see on the screen. And but we don't have that, I don't think. I'll ask Justin later as if he'll have any idea, right? Anyways, let's pray and pray that the Lord is glorified through our discussions today, and then we'll get started.

1:39 Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity, the freedom that we have to come here and to worship you and to think about you, to meditate on your word and to meditate on who you are. Lord, we think of the blessings that we have through you in our daily walk, the blessings that we have. But Lord, most of all, through the Lord Jesus and his death on the cross, we know that we have a future and a hope in you. And we want to thank you and praise you this morning. As we open up your word, please help us to have our thoughts, my thoughts, focused on you and to your glory, in your name.

2:21 Amen. Okay. You might have also noticed the glasses. Some people made comments, and I'm not used to them yet, but I'm going to have to wear them to read. This is a new phenomenon just happened that Mick Jagger was really on to something.

2:41 Somebody? Anybody? No? No Mick Jagger? No.

2:47 What a drag it is getting old. That was one of his songs. What a drag it is getting old. So, some people say it beats the alternative. I'm not so sure.

2:58 Okay. Let's start with just I'm going to be quick review, honey, quick review. And when I say review, just to open up what Philippians is all about. Philippians, written by Paul, of course, he had traveled, as we read in Acts 16, he had traveled to Philippi based on a vision that he received, that he was supposed to go there and preach the gospel and he did and the churches started there. And now he's in prison.

3:31 And based on most of the things I've read, assuming he's in Rome, but he was in prison so many times, who knows? But this is ten or twelve years later, he's writing this letter back to the church in Philippi to, first of all, thank them for their gift that they sent through. Laura, here it goes. No, epaphroditis. Thank you.

3:52 I messed it up the last time Laura came up and told me, this is how you say All right. But the gift that was brought from him to Paul and Timothy there, wherever he was in prison. And so, he's writing this to thank them and to encourage them. And the thing I love about Philippians is that there's a tone in some of the other letters. There's no point in Philippians where he says, You foolish Philippians, like he does in Galatians, right?

4:22 Or there's that scolding tone that he has in two Corinthians. Those that's not you don't find that in here. It's a very encouraging book. It's not that there's believe me, there's edification there, there's teaching, there's, hey, follow my example, but it's the tone of it is very different. So, I found it very encouraging as I've studied through it and learned from it.

4:42 So, we are going to start out by actually talking about this. This is the second half of Chapter one that we're going to focus on today. And I don't know if we'll get through with the entire chapter, but we're going to try to do that. And this chapter, if you had to give a heading to Chapter one, it's I would call it follow my example. This is Paul, not mine, but follow Paul is saying, follow my example.

5:07 Look at what I Look at how I handle these things. Look how I react to these things. Follow my example. Where chapter two is more better yet, follow Christ's example. That's if I was to put a heading on those two chapters, that's kind of how I would head it.

5:22 And I don't know that every theologian and scholar would agree with that, but that's what I get out of it when I'm reading it. And so, I want to point out today some of the things, because Paul is going to talk about in this chapter his reaction to affliction in the name of the gospel. His reaction to affliction in the name of the gospel. And we're going to look at not just affliction in the name of the gospel, but just how we as Christians react to affliction in the first place. And it's kind of jumping off of what John talked about a few weeks ago, is how do we handle things when they don't go right, when they don't go when life isn't going right for us.

6:03 And I think there's some great examples in Philippians based on what on Paul himself and then, of course, later with Jesus Christ and his humility and those things that are discussed later. There's some great examples for us to know how we're supposed to react. I say supposed to. We're supposed to. We're human.

6:42 And Tammy, to your credit, it's almost nothing's ever dirty at our house. You do a great job. So, that is not a commentary on your work back there, I don't want to get in trouble when I get home. I find cyanide in my sandwich at lunch. Anyways, but let's start out first by talking about some background with Paul.

7:02 Paul, if anybody had been afflicted for the gospel, for the sake of the gospel, it was Paul. Paul had plenty of experience. So, let's first turn to before we even start in Philippians, let's first turn to two Corinthians 11, if you would, please. And we're going to look at verses 23. We're going start in verse 23.

7:38 I'm not going to give too much background on what Paul is talking about here, but he's there's a comparison going on and he's talking about what he's been through in his ministry, okay? He says, So, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more he's boasting a little bit here In labors more abundant, in stripes, that means whippings above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths more often. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one.

8:12 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in the deep. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger, in thirst, in fastings often, in cold, in nakedness.

8:44 Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, and I thought this was funny that he left this for last, One of the things that plagues him the most, my deep concern for all the churches, these are not afflictions that we deal with. Quite honestly, we don't deal with these types of afflictions. Paul did, though. In the early church, they did. Now, as we go into this today, I'm not going to suggest that we walk around with shirts that say, Saved by grace, punch me in the face, that we're looking out there looking for that kind of affliction.

9:22 You know, that's not the point. But I think that our testimonies and the Gospel itself is lifted up through our reaction to the things that go around us every day, whether we're at work, how we respond to problems there, all those types of things. And so, we want to look at that example of Paul today and get an idea of how we should be responding to those things. And then, especially in the name of the Gospel, what we could be doing and maybe what we should be doing more so for the gospel and the affliction that we should be willing to endure. Now, want to ask you guys this question.

9:58 This will be kind of back and forth a little bit. Other than the early church, other than the very early church, has there been a period in our history, in the history of mankind, that Christians have been persecuted more than they are right now in the world? Continuously. It has been continuous. But is there a period of time that you would say that the persecution of Christians has been greater than what it is right now?

10:26 And I would say that probably not. There's probably never been a period of time in our history, not just our nation's history, but in the history of mankind since the very the early church and the persecutions they went there, that there's been more persecution than what we're seeing right now across the world. If you don't believe that, I'd suggest you get World Magazine because World Magazine does a great job of week after week after week demonstrating we're in different parts of the world, whether it's Africa, The Middle East, Asia, even in our own country where these persecutions are taking place, the persecution of the Christians are taking place, and it's awful. Murder, churches being burned, and it's constant, and it's all over the place. There's no question about it.

11:11 Now, here in America, we don't deal with that. And my question is, after reading through this and after we read through it, my question is, would we be better off if there was some more persecution? Would we be better off if there was? And we're going to look at Paul's example, maybe the answer is yes. Maybe we'd be better off.

11:33 We thank I even said in my prayer, I thank you for the freedom that we have to come here and meet. And around the world, that's not the case. In China, they hide in basements. In Iran, it's awful. If they're caught with the Bible, they're going to jail.

11:48 In different parts of the world, that's the way it is. You could be beheaded for simply mentioning the name of Jesus, right? And here, we don't have to worry about that. It's nice, but I wonder if it makes us complacent. All right, let's read.

12:22 He's in prison. And why is he in prison? Because he dared preach in the name of Jesus. So, that has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. So, it's evident to everyone that's in that prison, the guards and everybody that's involved, that Paul isn't there because he's a criminal, Paul is there because he dared to speak in the name of Jesus Christ.

12:48 And to those people, that's stirring up trouble. And it's not that different now. You think about some of the things that have happened even in our own nation lately in the name of Jesus. There was a guy who was supposed to Obama's last I think we talked about this before Obama's last inaugural address. There was I can't remember his name.

13:06 What was the guy's name that was supposed to speak at his thing? Because of things he had preached for the pulpit, he was what's that? But he wasn't permitted to speak during the inauguration because of things that he had spoken to from the Bible, truth from Scripture. And that was enough. He was canceled out.

13:22 They had to cancel. There was going to be too much flack for that. Wow. Who would ever thought that would happen, right? Let me look at my notes real quick, make sure I didn't miss anything.

13:32 Okay. So, for Paul, here's what imprisonment means. How would I respond? I don't know. Imprisonment was viewed as an opportunity to advance the gospel and to encourage other saints to boldly proclaim the message of salvation.

13:49 And I say this is what we're going to kind of talk about in a little bit, is some of that persecution that we don't experience, would that be good? And I throw this out to you. If where's Jacob Meng? Is he here today? He's not here.

14:02 I was going to use him because I remember driving through not Edgewater, but down here. Huntington Huntington Beach. And he was giving a presentation on his board, drawing out the pictures and doing his whole thing, presenting the Gospel down there. And if Jacob had been pulled over by the police, had pulled over and said, You know what? This guy, he's a rabble rouser.

14:26 He's preaching in the name of Jesus. And they had thrown him in the car, and they had taken him to the station, and they had thrown him in the cell, how would we have reacted? How would we have reacted? Angry, right? We would have gotten angry.

14:42 I think of those articles that I read about the Christians being persecuted across the world. And my first reaction is, let's get the Navy SEALs, let's get some drones, let's go get you know what I mean? That's my first reaction to that type of persecution. But yet, we're told to expect it. That's what it's supposed to be.

15:02 And not just supposed to be, take joy in it, right? We'll read that later. Man, what a blessing to be persecuted in the name of Christ. What a blessing. You've got to wonder.

15:14 And we'll get to that in a a So, what would you do? I know what I would do. I would be taken to the streets because nothing makes me more bold than what somebody tells me I can't do, right? You can't do that. Well, I'm an American.

15:33 I get my sign, I'd be out marching, I'd be out getting after it because they had dared throw my friend Jacob into jail for preaching the gospel. We wouldn't stand for it, would we? And wouldn't it embolden you if that happened to one of our own? It would, wouldn't it? We'd be out there yelling and screaming and making noise to defend the gospel.

16:01 Makes you wonder, doesn't it? So, affliction can everybody see that okay? Give me some feedback here. Can you see it all right in the back? Affliction can, and I say should be, an opportunity to glorify God and bring us to a place of greater dependence, fellowship and submission.

16:27 I submit this to you. If you consider the points in your life that were the toughest, the points in your life that were the hardest, the points where you're the most down, the points where you felt the most they're driving me crazy, the points that you felt the most hopeless, right? If you look back on them now, if you gave those problems up to Christ, are they not the greatest moments of your life in some ways? I mean, you look back and say that was a horrible time. Wow, I'm so thankful I had the Lord to get me through that.

17:02 And it made you more dependent on Him. I think about, in my personal experience, the toughest phase of my life I won't get into what it was but the toughest phase of my life was when I learned to count on the Lord the most, that I realized my own weakness and very, very, very believe me, I realized my own weakness in a very profound way and had to count on him. I can't tell you how thankful I am for that time. It was huge, huge. So, affliction could be a good thing.

18:33 Am I right? I mean, everybody's seen an example of that, I'll bet. And what is your reaction to that to me? Because to me, that's mind boggling. Would I be able to do that?

18:40 I hope I would. I hope I would. But if someone killed one of my kids, forgiveness is not the first thing on my mind. It's not. It's not human reaction.

18:49 It only comes through the grace of God that we can do that. It's only through God's grace. And understanding what it meant for Jesus to go onto the cross and die for my sins, to take the wrath of God's punishment on sin on himself, right? That gives me perspective. Because I know what I am.

19:11 God took that when He put His Son on this earth and Jesus being submissive to His Father took that on Himself. What room do I have to not forgive anybody for anything? Anyone for anything? How I not have forgiveness in my heart when Jesus could do that for me? So, see those parents and I think about what is the reaction of the people in the courtroom?

19:41 What is the reaction to that murder to hear that they're forgiven? I forgive you. I forgive you for what you did. It's got to if it doesn't it's got to make them think, right? There's got to be someone in that courtroom that goes, wow, how did they do that?

19:59 And that starts the process, doesn't it? How did they do that? Because you cannot start at that process and not finish with the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't, you can't, because that's where it goes, because there's no other way. I don't see anybody else being able to forgive that situation without Christ.

20:22 I find it hard to believe, at least. Okay. I want to turn to Acts seven. It should be familiar to Many of Us, the story of Stephen, and I'm just going to refer to it. I'm not going to read too much here, keeping track of my time a little bit.

21:04 Acts seven. Stephen, who has been is addressing the Sanhedrin and the chief priests and is talking through the history of what led to Jesus Christ. So, he goes through their patriarchs, know, through Abraham and Jacob and Isaac and Moses and goes through the whole process leading up to this point of Christ and demonstrated to them that time after time after time, they rejected God. Time after time, every single time, every prophet we sent, you killed, you ignored, you know, all those things, how they had rejected God all the way through their history. And now, finally, the Messiah had come, Jesus Christ had come, the Messiah, and they rejected Him as well.

21:56 And they listened to it because it's long. If you've read through that, it's a long section, isn't it? His speech is long. He goes through this whole history. And I could imagine them going, yes, we know this, we know the stories, we know all this, right?

22:07 And then he mentions the Son of Man seated, he looks in heaven, he sees the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God, and that's it. That's it. That's when they lose it, right? Let's take a look at verse 54. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.

22:33 This is the Pharisees. They were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. So they're angry because he had said that. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand and said, look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. In that moment, you know, self preservation, hey, guys, woah, I must have been way off.

23:05 See, you're getting angry. We'll come back. No, no, I see the Son of Man, the one you crucified sitting at the right hand of God. That's what I see. In that moment, where he knew that he was in trouble already.

23:17 He didn't get dragged in front of those guys because they were just they were fans. That didn't happen. They cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord. They cast him out of the city and stoned him. And I can think there's a lot of bad ways to die.

23:36 Stoning would be among those that I would choose not to go. There's ways to go, that's not one of them. And the witness laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, the same one who's writing this book of Philippians, right? Same one who's writing this book that we're reading in Philippians. That's who they laid down his clothes.

23:56 Saul was in it up to his neck, right? He was part of this process of stoning Stephen because of his belief in Christ. So, one thing that's pretty cool about this is the power of salvation, isn't it? That Saul, who was a persecutor of the Church, becomes one of the most persecuted Christians and outspoken Christians of all time. Cool thing, isn't it?

24:19 But, verse 59, And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And to me, this is maybe the most powerful part. Verse 60, Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Lord, do not charge them. The stones are pelting him, and he asks God, screams it out there for them to hear.

24:52 Lord, do not charge them with this sin. Do you think that affected anybody's thinking that was there? Do you think Paul looked back on that and thought about what Stephen was able to do? That that example helped build Paul up for the future? Or that somebody else because we know that many of the priests and Pharisees eventually came to the Lord Jesus, right?

25:16 A lot of them came and were saved eventually. Do you think that some of them were affected by Stephen's reaction that even in the midst of being stoned, he asked for God not to judge them based on their sin, what they did. Now, are the big examples. These are, I mean, these are the we're probably never going to have to face many of these. You know what mean?

25:49 He's great. But at the end there, he doesn't react very well, does he, to affliction. Here, Elijah, and this is in one Kings 19, Elijah has just called down because he's competing with the prophets of Baal. Baal has four fifty prophets. Elijah's by himself.

26:13 They both build altars. And this is a competition. You guys called your God to bring fire down from heaven. I'm going to call to my God to bring fire down to heaven. There's four fifty of you.

26:25 There's one of me. Let's see who wins. Let's see whose God is the true God. And so, those prophets, they put their altar together and they're dancing around and cutting themselves and doing all kinds of stuff, going crazy. And Elijah, he's he's like, running smack at him, he's making fun of him.

26:42 And then all of a sudden, he says, he calls to God and the fire consumes not just the burnt offering, but it consumes the stone, everything around it. Like it's all gone. The water, he dumped water all over it. And it didn't matter what he did. God just fire from heaven, wiped the whole thing out, right?

27:03 So, Jezebel, because they took those, the people along with Elijah, took those four fifty prophets of Baal, took them down, killed them, right, for being false prophets that they were, they were exposed. And so, they were killed for doing it. Elijah is now fearful because Jezebel, the king, the queen, right, Ahab's wife, says, I'm going to do to you just like you did to them. You're as dead as they are. And what does Elijah do?

27:34 He just stopped fire, come down from heaven and wipe out the altar. But what does he do? How does he respond? Oh, no. He runs, right?

27:44 So, God sends him an angel. An angel of the Lord comes to him and he's hiding, he's sleeping under his bush in the wilderness. And the angel brings him some food and he's revived a little bit. He goes back and sleeps for a little bit. And then the angel comes back, brings some more food.

28:00 This food revives him to the point that he walks for forty some days, forty, forty five days to Mount Hebron or something. And then, I don't remember all the details, but he walks to this mountain and God demonstrates to him his power. Elijah, He what are you doing here? And Elijah's like, well, you know, I've been such a faithful servant of the Lord and all the prophets that have been killed, and now they want to kill me too. And so God says, whoosh, wind and fire and earthquakes and the mountains opening up and rocks are splitting.

28:33 And he says, Elijah, what are you doing here? And Elijah says, oh, it's such a chance. He had an opportunity. I don't know what I'm afraid of, Lord. Why would I be afraid of Jezebel?

28:46 I just saw you tear a mountain to bits, right? But no, he says, The prophets throughout history, they've been killed, and I've been a faithful servant, and they're going to kill me too. Can you imagine that? In the face of that, we do it all the time. We see God's power, we see God's grace, we see it all the time and yet we doubt.

29:09 He doubted in the face of something that I can't imagine doubting. If I saw that, I'd have to think, okay, Jezebel, no big deal, gotcha. But he didn't, he was still afraid. And so he was replaced, right? That began that process replacing him with Elisha.

29:24 He didn't respond the right way. But we've seen so many examples of people who do. We had Scott read Psalm 63. What I love about that Psalm, and I won't refer to it long because we're running out of time, but what I love about that psalm is David, we're reading Samuel with the kids right now. And as we're reading these stories about David, David's heart of submission is just unbelievable to me.

29:52 This is a man that they had songs that they sang about him, that had solid killed his thousands and David has 10 thousands, and they sang songs and they knew those songs throughout the land of the Philistines. They knew it and everywhere around, everybody he runs into, they mentioned, aren't you David, the one that they sing that song about, right? Song and dance. This is a guy who knew he was going to be king, knew that power was coming his way, and what is his hard attitude in the face of affliction? Here he is being chased by Saul.

30:24 This is before he's king, chased by Saul, the current king, who wants to kill him because Saul knows that his kingdom is being taken from him and that his line will end with him. And he wants to take David out, which is pointless. God already told him what was going to happen, but Saul, know, he's going to try to take David out anyways, right? But David, he knows that David's going to be the next king. And so, he's chasing him through the wilderness.

30:46 And at some point, Saul enters into a cave that David and his men are hiding in, and Saul is going to the bathroom and David is able to walk up and cut off a piece of his robe. This Saul who's afflicting him, chasing him, trying to kill him, he had an opportunity to do what? Take him out. And some people would have said that God put Saul in that cave for that purpose so that David, that was his will, he's demonstrated. No, but David says, no, God anointed Saul.

31:22 It's not for me to decide when his time is up. And if you look at that psalm, let's turn to it just real quick. If you turn to that psalm, he says in verse 10, these are the people that have chased him. He's talking about the wilderness and that he's in the land with no water, this is not figurative. This is actually where he's at.

31:46 In verse 11 of Psalm 63, I'm sorry, verse 10 of Psalm 63, They shall fall by the sword, they shall be apportioned for jackals, but the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him shall glory, but the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped. First of all, in the first part of Psalm 63, he's talking about his praise for God, that his reliance on God, how he depends. I love the line where he talks about being hidden under his wings, in the shadow of his wings, that that's how he felt about God, that God to him, this affliction, the things that he was going through was about greater dependence on God. But his submission is what's incredible to me.

32:35 His submission to what God's plan was, not about his own, would life have been easier if he just killed Saul? It's over. I'm done worrying about my life. I don't have to hide in caves. I don't have to run through the wilderness.

32:46 I don't have to do any of those things. If I kill Saul, it's over. But what does David do? I'd rather live with this affliction and honor God and bring glory to Him by seeking His will and doing His will above my own. What would make life easier for me?

33:05 And that's really what it came down to, right? He said, I'm going to do God's will and not my own, because this is the Lord's anointed. Far be it for me to take his life. I'm not going to do it. God will do it in his time.

33:17 And that's what verse 10, it actually prophesies what's going to happen to that person who was seeking his life, that he would die by the sword. And sure enough, he did. But in God's time, in God's way, not on his own. Now, I thought about this, and this is kind of where my mind goes a little bit, but I thought about when his men were urging him, go kill Saul. Go do it.

33:39 Go take him out. This is your moment. God's put him right in your hands. And he said, no. That's the Lord's anointed.

33:46 Do you think that came back? Do you think that that testimony of seeking God's will above his own, do you think that that paid dividends for David? It did, didn't it? In the faithfulness of his men, in times, you think about how many times, there are times when David's men want to kill him, right? When they're going off to help the Philistines fight against Saul later, right?

34:09 And that battle where Saul dies, they're going and they leave and the Amalekites come and kill their take their families, not kill them, but take their families away. David's men want to kill them. You took us into this battle for the Philistines and look what happened to our families while we're gone, right? And they want to kill him. And what does it say about David?

34:28 He relied on the strength of his Lord. That's it. It doesn't say like how he talked through it or anything like that. He relied on the strength of his Lord and that was it. He went to that.

34:38 That dependence on God in all those situations, no matter what the affliction, what a great example for us. What a great example for us. Let's keep reading in Philippians, please. You know, I actually thought I underprepared this time. I said I'm only going to do one page to go through, no problem.

35:23 There I am. Okay. We know that from Romans chapter one that he says, what is it about the Gospel? The Gospel is the power of God to salvation, right? It's the power of God to salvation that anyone can be saved from what is the ultimate truth.

35:43 If you accept Christ as your savior, you're going to heaven. If you do not, you're going to hell. It's that simple. There's no and we've said this before. It doesn't matter what you think about it.

35:54 Like in America, we have the freedom to think about, well, I choose not to believe that. Well, yes, you have been given that ability to choose not to believe it. But guess what? Whether you believe it or not, it's going to happen. Like it says in two Corinthians five, we're all going to stand before God in judgment.

36:12 It's going to happen. It's as sure as we're sitting here today, we will all stand before God in judgment. We are all going to be there. I want my name written in the book of life. Well, Paul, he believes that that power of salvation, the power of God to salvation is important enough that he's willing to sacrifice for it.

36:31 Listen, listen what it says in verse 14, we're going to read 14 through 18 here. And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing they had conflict to my chains, and I wondered about that, like how would someone out there preaching the Gospel, what would be the motivation? Well, if you didn't like Paul for whatever reason, and I've read different things, people's takes on this, and they think that some people just did it to try to be famous like Paul, and I don't know if I'd want to be in you know what I mean?

37:13 Like, is that really the motivation to be in prison? I don't know. But I think there were people that wanted to stir it up, that if we keep pumping up the crowds about this whole Jesus thing, that it's going to make it they're going to take Paul out. Eventually, it's going to be enough of a problem that they're going to want Paul out of the way, just like they got rid of that Jesus guy, right? I think that's kind of maybe the mindset that some of those guys had that they would preach the gospel and they didn't do it and they were doing it out of envy or whatever other reasons.

37:42 And I think maybe it was to make trouble for Paul, right, in that way. But Paul says, what then? And I love it. What then? How would you let me get that set.

37:59 How would you translate that? What then? How would you translate it? Interaction people. What?

38:07 How would you translate it? What then? So what, right? Whatever. Whatever.

38:16 That's what I tell you. Whatever. So what? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this, I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. So, even if it makes my situation worse here in prison, even if my affliction grows because of what these people are doing, even when they're not doing it for good motives, who cares?

38:38 Christ's name is preached. What are people willing to do for the sake of the gospel? What are they willing to go through? Well, Paul is saying, look at my example, look what I'm, hey, who cares? As long as Christ is preached and salvation is taught, this is the way of salvation.

38:57 Now, and I won't go back to it, but in two Corinthians, there's a portion where he says, when he talks about preaching the gospel, he says, To some, we are the aroma of death leading to death. That means people hear the gospel, they hear the good news of Jesus Christ, that he loves them and died for them, right? And to them, that reeks of death. I want nothing to do with it. And they walk away, right?

39:22 And he talks about, for some, it's the aroma of life that they hear that word, that they hear the truth of Jesus Christ, and they come to that and they say, I need that. That's life, man, I need that, right? And he said, that's worth it. I mean, you know, for those who are going to reject it, they're going to reject it. But for those people that that aroma is of life, it's worth any suffering, any suffering.

39:45 So, what then? Only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ has preached, and in this, I rejoice. Yes, and will rejoice. So, let's go on. Verse 19.

39:56 I'm way off my script here. Script, my notes. But, it's okay. Just because of time here. I'll make a quick point about this, but let's read 19 through, let's at least get through 24, okay?

40:52 Whether or not it's better for him to keep preaching God's word and the gospel or whether it's better to just let it end, right? And so, he's having this kind of debate on paper, and I think he comes to a conclusion by the time he's done writing it, but I think when he starts here, he says, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance. He knew that God was going to deliver him, but whether that deliverance was going to be out of jail or by death, either way, he knew that he was going to be delivered, right? That's the peace that we have too, isn't it? That no matter what happens in this life, and is there anything that can happen in this life, when we know that we have heaven to look forward to, is there anything that can happen in this life that should bring us down?

41:33 And the answer is no. Does it? Yes. Will it? Probably, right?

41:37 But is there anything that should bring us down? And the answer to that is no. There shouldn't be anything, but we do because that's we're human, that's how we react to it. But if we're seeking God the way we should and trying to demonstrate His power through our lives, then no, theoretically, we shouldn't get dismayed by these things, you know, we shouldn't. According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

42:13 So, it doesn't matter which one it is so much, doesn't matter which one it is, whether by life or by death, as long as Christ is glorified through this process. So, if I'm alive, I'm going to glorify Christ. If I'm dead, then hopefully He'll be glorified in my death in some way, because it'll make even more people boldly speak out the gospel of Christ. Who knows? God will use that in some powerful way.

42:39 And I'm just going to let him do that. But in one way or the other, God is going to be glorified through what happens to me. And then this line, For me to live, or I'm sorry, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now, this was, I mentioned it before, it's on my mom and my dad's tombstone, right, or their headstone. And I remember, as a 23 year old, when my mom died, not really having a full grasp.

43:06 I understood the die is gain. I understood that part. But to live is Christ, that I didn't understand. To live is Christ. And I tried to work that out in my mind, to live is Christ, to live is Christ.

43:16 If you type it up, when I type this up on Word, it underlines it because it's grammatically, they can't handle it. It doesn't know what that's all about, right? To live is Christ. Paul demonstrates this, doesn't he? He says, Whether in my life, whether I live and in my body, I'm able to glorify God and preach His word, great.

43:37 Or in my death, doesn't matter, one way or the other, it's all about Christ. There it is. There it is. It's all about Christ, right? It's all about Christ.

43:49 In my life, is my life about Christ? Do I wake up about Christ? What am I doing for Jesus Christ today? What am I doing today? What's my purpose, right?

44:02 We read that Purpose Driven Life. It's easy, Christ. Christ. That's what it should be, right? And we get caught up in all the day to day nonsense.

44:10 And that's what makes you think, the end of the day, when you sit and you meditate on those things, doesn't it make you think, look what I just invested myself in? I think that all the time. I do. I got a couple of my football coaches here, Kipp and Kyle Hager. I told you I was going to choose that.

44:25 Forgot to do that. But Kip and Kyle. And you think about the time we invest in football, sitting down and drawing through plays and getting our scouting reports together and doing all that kind of stuff. The time we invest in that compared to the time that we invest in the Lord, the Creator of the universe, the one who died for us. You know what I mean?

44:44 You think, what? What is it all for sometimes? It just seems so pointless. And then Christmas comes and I realize when I'm coaching football, there's no Christmas present. Without, you know.

44:54 But anyways, anyways, I'm going to finish with this, and it's not I want to finish with this thought, okay? And then maybe if Tammy will allow me to do a little review the next time, can come back and hit a couple of things I missed. Paul's life was about Christ. And my challenge is, read somewhere, someone said that you cannot say, For me to live is sport and to die is game, right? For me to live is work, my job, and to die is game.

45:46 And it's not in Christ. So sometimes we do. I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, but it doesn't mean I'm investing myself completely in Christ. And if I'm not, if I'm investing myself in job, in sport, in whatever it is, okay, whatever takes the place of that line, I can still say to die is gain. It's going to get better.

46:09 You know what I mean? Like, no matter how unfaithful, and we read that last week, right? No matter how unfaithful I am, He is faithful. It does not change. My salvation is secure.

46:18 It's done. Awesome. So, why would I worry about it? Well, because I want, just like Paul, I want to please him. And that's where in verse, I'm holding my glasses up against it.

46:35 And being confident, I know that I shall remain and continue with you for all your progress and joy of faith. It wasn't about that he couldn't put something else in there too, he could have, but for him, was about living for Christ completely and that that was worth it. Now, the only one who can't put to die is gain, all of us who are saved can say to die is gain. No matter how much we invest of ourselves in the Lord, whether we're doing it the way we should or not, we can say to die is gain. You know who can't say that?

47:07 The unsaved. They can't say it. They can say, for me to live is football and to die is going to be terrible. To die is going to be misery. To die is going to be suffering.

47:20 To die is going to be eternal damnation and separation from a holy God, right? That's what they can put in there. And that's a scary thought. And that should give us more drive to take that gospel out to others, right? Should.

47:56 You have to worry about somebody being upset with you or making fun of you or thinking less of you. So, anyways, let's give thanks for our time here and close. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace and your goodness to us. And Lord, as we search your word and we look at these examples of people that in the face of difficult times have responded in ways that glorified you, we want pray for that application in our own lives that we walk out of here, not just the same guy that walked in, but that there is some change, that we do think more about how we respond even to the little problems that we face every day. How do I respond to this and in what way can I glorify your name through my reaction?

48:46 And we thank you for the example that we have in scripture. We thank you that we have some guidelines to follow because without it, we are certainly hopeless. We appreciate you and all that you are in your name. Amen.