To Live as Christ — Philippians 1-3

0:00 So we'll be in Philippians, but don't turn there yet. We're gonna go somewhere else first. I appreciated the the Lord's supper meeting here this morning. And in some respects, I thought, boy, this this is gonna tie in great. And then Devin stood up and said, turn to Philippians.

0:25 And if, you know, I don't know if other people experience this, but when you're when you're going to speak and someone else is sharing before you and they stand up and say the same book you're going to speak from, you're like, you know, uh-oh, they're going to hear it twice. He was close, but not not exact where I was gonna be. But we're gonna be in Philippians, but I wanna give a little bit of background first on this. And and we have the privilege of seeing something that we don't always get to see in every place of scripture. So this is...

1:04 Well, and first, let me say this. I... I'm gonna... We're gonna talk about Paul today a lot. We'll mention his name a lot.

1:10 And the danger with that, when you take different Bible characters and you are gonna spend a significant amount of time talking about them, sometimes it's easy to forget the one behind the man or the woman that we're talking about. So let us this morning as we talk about Paul, let us not also miss Christ. That's what this book in every... From from the beginning to the end really points to Christ. So I don't want to miss that.

1:39 But in what we're going to talk about today, Paul wrote this letter to the believers in Philippi. They had sent him Epaphroditus. That's how I say it. I don't know how you guys say his name. They sent him to Paul bearing this gift, and we'll address that a little more once we get into the passage.

2:00 They actually sent him back to Paul. But just for a moment, I wanna talk about something that's not necessarily exactly what we're gonna talk about this morning, but I think it's worth mentioning. For a lot of my life, I grew up in a Christian home and I learned a lot about what the Bible said, which is good. That's great. But it wasn't honestly until I got to college that I really started to understand how the Bible was actually put together, like the the pages and how was it ordered in these different things.

2:36 And so, know, growing up, there could be some confusion because you'll read about, say, David, you know, first in Samuel, and then all of a sudden he comes up in another book and then another book, but those books were way down the line. How is he still alive in first Samuel, but also still alive in stone? It maybe it could just be me. Okay? I'm a simple guy.

3:01 Doesn't mean stupid, but can mean slow to grasp something at times. And so I wanna do this for just a second, but you have the first five books of the Bible, Genesis to Deuteronomy, you have the law. So everything related to to the Old Testament law is gonna really be in those books. That's followed by Israel's history from Joshua to Esther. Now if chronologically on a timeline, really if you stopped at Esther, you pretty much have covered the entire timeline that would transpire in the Old Testament, but you're leaving out some of the parts that would happen during that time.

3:37 Hope I didn't just confuse everybody. But then after that, have Job the Song of Solomon. You have the poetry books followed by prophecy from Isaiah to Malachi. And so you'll have, like in second Samuel 11, you'll have the story of David and Bathsheba. Okay?

3:55 You see the story happen. You see what unfolds. I think it's the next chapter where David... Nathan calls him out. David really repents.

4:02 But then you can go to another place in the Bible, Psalm 51. Is that right? See, the heavy hitters are here today. So this is good. Psalm 51.

4:12 And you can read like the heart of David. You know, and so you can see what happened, but then you could see like the story behind the man, if that makes sense. In the New Testament, we have similar things that happened, but we have the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then you have church history in Acts, the epistles, Romans to Jude, and then another prophecy in Revelation. And so what we're gonna look at today is we're gonna spend just just a second in in Acts because we'll get to see the beginnings of the church of Philippi and then we're gonna go and we're gonna look at the letter.

5:15 You get to skip the TSA. You get to stay... Really skip the takeoff and everything. We're gonna start at 37,000 feet. We're gonna start at cruising altitude, then we're gonna drop down and really focus in on some stuff, and then we're gonna jump back up.

5:31 So I don't... I hope I don't give you a whiplash and make you nauseous, but I wanna give a brief just summary here in Acts 16. And so in verses 11 to 15 in Acts 16, and you can read this on your own and many of you probably have, you'll need some of these things. We'll reference them later. But in 11 to 15, Paul and Silas arrive at Philippi and they they found this little prayer meeting happening outside the city where they met this gal named Lydia.

6:01 Now we have a Lydia in our family and we hope one day she lives up to the name, who we really got the name from here in Acts 16. But right now, she's almost two. So we'll see what happens. In verses 16 to 24, Paul casts out this evil spirit from the slave girl who was making money for her masters. It made the masters angry, so they made up some stories which led to Paul and Silas being beaten and thrown into prison.

6:31 Now I am really... We're at 37,000 feet cruising. Okay? I know that. So read this.

6:36 You have to read this on your own. Verses 25 to 27, at about midnight while Paul and Silas were in prison, praying, singing hymns, there was an earthquake and the prison doors flew open. So they had an opportunity. They could have left right then. The prison guard woke up, saw what was happening and thought, well, I had one job to do and I just ruined it because all the prison doors are open.

7:02 Everybody's probably gone. It was dark, so he couldn't see. He just assumed they were gone. So he drew his sword to take his own life and Paul calls out to him and says in verse 28 of chapter 16 of Acts, he says, Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, do not harm yourself for we're all here. And he called for the lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul in silence.

7:26 And after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your house. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in the household. And he took them that very hour of that night and washed their wounds and immediately he was baptized. He and all his household and he brought them into the house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly with his whole household because he had believed in God.

8:04 Verses 39 or 35 to 40, kind of finishing out that chapter or 35 to 39, Paul and Silas in an interesting turn of events, were released from prison in a pretty cool way. I felt like they got a little, just a little, I don't want to say revenge, but go read it on your... It's neat what transpired and what happened and how they got released. Anyway, so so they got released and they go and it picks up in verse 40, and they went out of prison and entered the house of Lydia. And when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and left.

8:44 So here you have the church plant, if you will, of Philippi, the church in Philippi. It is likely, though I cannot prove this, it is likely that some of these very people that we just read about were the very ones Paul had on his mind as he penned the words in this letter that we're going to look at today. So you can turn to second Philippians. Now actual, real Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one.

9:46 If you have a New King James or King James Bible, there may be some other ones. I know those two both. The word is is gonna be... I don't think I'm gonna say this word right, but I'm gonna give it a shot. Italicized.

9:59 Is that... I think I got it right. Which means that it's a supplied word. So it's not in the original text, but we put it in there to make it easier to read. So if you really wanted to take this verse as to what it actually is saying, it would say it would read for this, for to me to live Christ and to die gain.

10:22 For to me to live Christ and to die gain. And we'll talk about that more today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be among one another, to be among other brothers and sisters who've professed salvation, to start off this day in remembrance of you. I mean, the Lord's Supper is meant to be a remembrance feast.

10:53 Sometimes can maybe stray a little bit, but there was definitely a remembrance ceremony that happened this morning. We look forward to your return, but while you have us here, Lord, help us to be faithful with what you've given us, with the gifts and abilities you've given us. We pray that you'd bless your word this morning as it goes forth and take away any part of it that's not from you that comes out of my mouth and help it to be forgotten. It's in your name we pray, amen. So we're going to cover verses 12 to 30, which for me is a big chunk.

11:27 That's why we're going to be at cruising altitude and then focus in on some different parts. But just know that there's a lot in here that I'm not even... I might even mention it. I might not mention it that that we could study and spend an in-depth time doing. But you saw fit to have me back a second time, so I don't want to take advantage and spend, you know, too.

11:51 So either all the other people were booked or didn't want to come out in the cold, but we're here today. And so in verses 12 to 14 of chapter one of Philippians, it says, now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. So that my chains in Christ have become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else. And that most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord because of my chains have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. So just to touch on the background of this again one more time, the Philippian believers had heard that that Paul was in prison.

12:37 And so they sent Epaphroditus, Paul had sent to them, back to Paul with this gift to maybe encourage him. Some of these things we don't know and so I'm gonna take maybe some liberties on these things and it's okay to disagree. I'm probably wrong. I don't know. But it seems to me that they sent this to Paul because they probably assumed the worst.

13:02 I mean, the Romans for the most part could do about whatever they wanted with people. They pretty much ruled the land. And they knew Paul was in prison. They knew a lot of people didn't like him, and so they send this gift. And my thought is they thought, hopefully this encourages Paul, but this might be the end for him.

13:21 His days are probably numbered, let's send this gift, let's encourage him. And so they send it. And in Paul's response back to them, he sends a letter back to them, what we're looking at today. It seems as though Paul was setting out to reassure the believers in Philippi that, hey, it's not as bad as you think. Okay, it's actually though, it's awful for me in many regards, but it's not what you think.

13:51 And so he says, I want you to know my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel. The gospel and Paul's ministry, in fact, had not all ceased. Paul's circumstances, if you want to know, were that he was placed in prison in an unjust way. He broke no law. He stole from no one.

14:20 He killed no one to get put into prison. He was put in there because he preached Christ. Unjustly imprisoned. And because of that, he was now reaching the whole Praetorian Guard. Now I am a simple man, so I had to look that up, you know, when I first came across that.

14:42 And there's several several views out there as actually who who that really was and who that referred to, but most people agree that it was someone or a group of people in in Roman authority, whether it was soldiers or government officials. Most agree that it was some high up Roman people. And so them, the Praetorian Guard along with the... He says everyone else. So we don't know for sure who that is, but everyone else that he mentioned.

15:21 These people were probably not the ones who would have sought Paul out to hear his message he was preaching. But because they arrested him, put him in prison, you could say Paul had them exactly where he wanted them. And they, you know, that was their job to be with Paul. Excuse me. And so he had him right where they wanted him.

15:44 He was reaching these people with the gospel message. They were both hearing the gospel and probably a lot of them as they started to get to know Paul and to see him, probably realized this guy really didn't do anything to get put in prison. It seems as though he's probably here for an unfair reason because he preached this Christ character, whatever they thought about him, about Christ, I I don't know for sure, but they probably realized he really was put in here for that, not for any other reason. And so he says a greater progress of the gospel is happening. This word progress is used often in a military sense, used to describe an advancement in spite of obstacles.

17:00 Like that was very difficult back in those days. It was not like it is today. But he doesn't claim that things were easy. But in spite of the obstacles that he did face, and I would submit to you that likely because of the obstacles that he faced, specifically being put in prison, that the advancement of the gospel was being made. Even though that, I mean, that's to me seems like you're an evangelist.

17:29 Like when I think of evangelist, I think Billy Graham. I don't know who else comes to mind for you guys, but I think, you know, thousands of people, he goes out, thousands of people hear his message. And and Paul sharing the gospel with the Gentiles is now put in prison. To me, that seems like, that's gonna be kind of difficult now. I mean, there weren't like necessarily, it wasn't like there was fluorescent lights and people could see.

17:53 I mean, a lot of times you were locked away by yourself. How does the gospel message continue in such conditions? Being literally in chains as he'll say. But it's because of those chains, there is the progress in most of the brothers. And I don't know exactly what that mean.

18:09 How many? Who's most? But he says most of the brothers have gained confidence in the Lord and more courage to speak the word of God without fear. With the exception of maybe family, I feel like today oftentimes you see on the news someone will commit some crime and maybe there's family members that stick by them, but a lot of times people start to distance themselves. Like, I don't know, I wasn't involved in any of that.

18:43 And they distance themselves, but not in this case, not with Paul. Many stuck with him and gained confidence and courage to speak the word of God without fear. I want you to remember that point. I'm gonna mention it again in a second, But remember that point as we begin to really shape Paul's attitude towards what it means to live Christ. Okay?

19:10 To set aside self for the greater cause of the gospel. And we'll read verses 15 to 18. And it says, some to be sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill and the latter do it out of love knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition, then from pure motives thinking to cause my cause me affliction in my chains. What then?

19:48 Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this, I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. So in in case you missed him, what he just said in the previous section was that the gospel was going out and men were gaining confidence to share the word of God with other people. But included in that group of people who, I believe, who got confidence and courage to speak up, you had people who were doing it out of love.

20:26 You You you could say they were preaching for the right reasons. But with them, there was another group that I think also got courage by Paul being in prison, and it was the ones who he talked about who desired to cause greater pain in his chains. He said, well, how can that be? And it all revolves around this one thing. He was able to rejoice in both the good preaching...

20:53 Well, the preaching of those who had good motives and the preaching of those who maybe had bad motives because the common denominator was they preached Christ. They preached Christ. And I would submit to you, it's likely and I'm only using the verses that are here given, but specifically verse 17, the former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me affliction in my pain in in my chains, it's likely, and I don't know this, but when Paul was brought to prison or brought to to trial and they're looking for witnesses of who who can talk about this guy and say bad things, there's a possibility that some of these very people were ones that would show up and speak against Paul because they wanted to cause him more affliction. Now I don't know that. I can't prove that to you.

21:49 But I can tell you from these verses, it seems that if they had the opportunity to throw Paul under the bus and elevate themselves, they would have done that. Regardless, it really doesn't matter because they were preaching Christ. Now I wanna give you just one disclaimer to that. If you've read any of Paul's other letters, you know that he didn't take that stance with everybody because there were some, the Judaizers, who did not preach Christ, and Paul was more than happy to call them out on different occasions and those who were caught living in open sin. So it's not that Paul was just like, well, you know, they can do whatever they want.

22:33 That's fine. No. He was alright with them causing him more pain and more problems because they were preaching Christ and the gospel message was still going forward. Now, I gotta say, I don't know that I fit in that same category as Paul. This sort of thing probably doesn't happen here.

23:01 Okay? We're going to assume that it doesn't. I don't mean I'm not stepping on anybody's... I don't have an instance in mind. I'm saying that as a disclaimer right now.

23:13 Okay? This is not a rebuke or anything, although if you feel rebuked, maybe consider, you know, is the Lord trying to tell you something. But I have nothing in mind. But you know the instance that was having with Paul, but for me, like nowadays, and and the way that things sometimes go inside our local meetings, is that we get upset when somebody does something a little bit different than how we were gonna do it. So for instance, once upon a time in this very room, like two decades ago, I remember many times spending the night at the Morris's house and, and Paul had this front wheel drive car that in the winter, if you wanna do donuts in a front wheel drive car, you have to go in reverse.

23:58 I don't know. I get carsick now, so I don't know how I did it. But I remember go... We'd go to Walgreens and buy candy and stay up late. We'd show up on Sunday mornings and mister and missus Morris would look so refreshed.

24:11 And like, I don't know what... I mean, it's twenty years ago, but they drug, you know, these young teenagers in and probably didn't shower and all that stuff. But I remember that these chairs in the first meeting used to be set up in a circle. Now, I don't know what happened between then and 2025, but you all have been facing the front now. Okay?

24:37 Now, I know that it's a silly thing, but sometimes those little minor things like, well, we're not facing in the circle, we're all facing, we can't see each other. It may be silly. It may be it's you in this room. I don't know again. I'm not being able to step on toes.

24:52 But something so like a minor detail, we can harp on that and get stuck on that and miss the major of what's going on. I'm just speaking for me. I can get caught in the gutters of the minor issues of like, well, they're not doing it how I would do it or how I think they should do it and totally miss that they are preaching Christ. I'm not I'm not saying they're like... I mean, if they're living in sin and different things, that's a different issue.

25:18 But if we can get together and focus on the major things and stop getting caught in the minor things, look at Paul. I mean, this was no minor thing. These people literally were out to make his life more difficult. He said, it's fine. It's fine.

26:00 But that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time in this. There's some different thoughts out there as to exactly what Paul meant when he said it'll turn out for my salvation. He appears to be quoting Job thirteen sixteen. But at the end of the day, and I think most would agree on this, at the end of the day, there would be a time whether on this earth or in eternity, Paul's circumstances were gonna get better.

26:29 I think we can all agree on that. That in eternity at least the circumstances were to get better. So that brings us to our key verse, for me to live as Christ, to die is gain. And again that word is is added in there. But even with that, I'm a simple guy.

26:46 So when you even put in for me to live as Christ and to die as gain, I'm kinda like, it reads easier, but I still don't fully understand what it means. And if you dive into what does it mean to live is Christ. Man, this... I was appreciating this morning the the Lord's Supper, and we sang this song and then Janelle even mentioned it and I felt like, oh, man, it just keeps coming up. She mentioned it after.

27:17 But in... I've never heard this song. We don't have we don't have the black book where I come from. So you can pray for us. But I've never I've never...

27:26 I don't think I've ever sung sung this song before, but according to thy gracious word, there's a line in here. The third line of the second stanza. Yea, while a breath a pulse remains, would I remember thee. I mean, that's really is... I mean, we could just close this up and just leave with those thoughts because that's really what Paul is getting at here.

27:54 To live as Christ is to remember Christ and to participate in the things that Christ did. And what did Christ do? He obeyed God. He humbled himself. He gave his life for others and he suffered.

28:08 Now Devin stole one of my verses. I'm gonna read it again, but in chapter three verse 10, you only got to flip a page that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. That's to be participate in the things of Christ in his suffering and his death. You probably flip one more page in your Bible, Colossians chapter one verses 24. It says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up what is lacking of Christ's afflictions in my flesh on behalf of his body, which is the church.

28:52 Paul was actively participating in the things of Christ. He was actively living Christ. And again, I don't want to elevate Paul beyond what is human. Okay? He was still man.

29:07 And he even said, and I don't remember what book it was, you know, follow me. Do the things that I do as I'm doing what what Christ is doing. And so we we go on to verse 22 to 26. And he continues to write about the same thought, but if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. And I do not know what I will choose, but I'm hard pressed between the two having the desire to depart, to be with Christ for that is very much better yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

29:45 And convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and your joy in the faith. Just to break this up in just a couple things. Number one in verse 22 where he says, if I live on in the flesh, he's not talking about living on in sin, he's talking about his human body. When the skin is on the bones and the soul is inside, human. That's what he's talking about.

30:10 If he continues to live in this life, it will mean fruitful labor for him. For him to die though would be gain. The best thing for Paul, if you were to really... Like if he was being honest, he would have said the best thing for me honestly is that I die and I go and I be with God for me, for him personally. And so he says, but for you it would be better if I was here, so what shall I choose?

30:39 And I would submit to you that that word is also used... You could could use the word prefer. It's not like God is sitting up there like, well, you know, take a few days, Paul, and see, do you want to stay or would you rather... And just get back with me and we'll see. That's not what was going on.

30:56 Paul is having this internal debate back and forth like, honestly, you and I do it too. We're just not brave enough sometimes to put it on paper and write it down for others to see what's going on in our minds. But he's having this internal struggle and he's telling them, I want to go and I want to be with Christ. That's what's best for me. But for you, people in Philippi, believers in Philippi, it would be better if I stayed here.

31:21 But while I'm here, I'm not gonna look at this life as a life just just like with disdain, I gotta be here. No. It was fruitful labor. Fruitful labor. Different from what I do.

31:34 I mean, if I'm being honest, and it's changed as I've gotten older and some in this room, you know, eventually we reach a point in our lives, most of us will, And I feel like I'm starting to enter into this stage where more of the people that we've done life with have gone and passed on to the other side. And as in in in, you know, and I I feel a little guilty about saying this because I'm like, my desire for being in heaven should not have changed because my mom or my dad have passed on and I believe they're with the Lord now. I should desire to be in heaven because that's where the father is. But I'm human and I know you're human too and sometimes that that begins to happen to us. You know, we we say things like, well, I can't wait to get to heaven.

32:30 But... Now if you have to put but after that, there might be, you know, an issue. But I wanna get married. But I wanna have a child. But I want to fill in the blank.

32:44 Paul didn't have that. His b u t, but, his but if you will, was that I'll stay, but it'll be for fruitful labor. I'm not gonna squander the time that I have here. I am going to live Christ. And Paul was giving these folks in written form exactly what he was gonna write about in a few verses later in chapter two, three and four, doing nothing from selfish ambition or vainglory but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

34:04 He says this about this verse, we should all be or we should be in practice what we are in position. I thought, boy, that's... I like the way that that's worded. We should be in practice. We should be doing the things that show the position that we are in if we are in Christ.

34:24 And he says, standing firm, it's another military term. It really refers to the type of formation the Romans would use when they would get together, shield overlapping shield, contending together. There is an element to standing firm ourselves. You know, we need to put on the armor ourselves, full armor of God. But then we need to unite with our brothers and sisters, quit focusing on the minors, get together with the majors, put our shields together, and stand firm.

34:57 Contending together, the Greek word really it's sounds a little bit like athlete because that's partially where we get that kind of that word from, but to wrestle, to in company with, to seek jointly, to labor with, to strive together for. It's the idea of of brothers and sisters in Christ uniting together for one purpose, to live Christ. In verse 28, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but out of salvation, but of salvation for you and that too from God. You know, generally, those who are unshaken by a circumstance are usually innocent. Know, what do what do you mean?

35:47 Any public school people in here, You're sitting in class, doing your thing, and you're over the intercom. Jenna, report to the principal's office. Now if you're Jenna, you're like... If you're innocent, you're like, oh, probably gonna... And she probably was.

36:04 Well, she was homeschooled. So it was come to the dresser. I don't know where you all did discipline in your room or... But she probably would have thought, well, mom or dad are probably just gonna give me like my stack of clothes to put away or something. Now I heard Brian go to the dresser, I immediately, like, something's wrong.

36:24 I've done something. I know I'm guilty. I'm not sure exactly what they know that I did, but I know that I've done stuff. And so... But if you're innocent, you got nothing to worry about.

36:34 And that's that's really what the the that verse is getting at. Probably the hardest verse of this section, and we'll wrap up with these two verses, is this one in verse 29. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. Now, this is not the verse you tend to, you know, take out to your evangelisms wherever you go and share with people like, hey, you know, would you like to suffer for Christ? Like, that's not usually what you lead with.

37:15 I mean, maybe you do. I I'm not saying it couldn't work but but I think it's important that we don't forget to mention that. Whether it's it's at that point or it probably wouldn't be at the point of salvation necessarily but you know, there's going to come a time when when someone professes to be in Christ that they are going to face a real struggle. I don't know what it would be, whether it's extreme persecution or just some life happens. But to know that we ought to as believers expect to suffer in some way.

38:24 They stay rather than run for their freedom. And because they did that, I'm not saying the church wouldn't have been planted anyway, but this Roman guard and his family came to know the Lord out of that, out of them living Christ. Now I find it interesting that Paul, nowhere in here offers any advice on how to avoid or lessen the conflict. He gives you a way to endure it and a way to withstand it. It's one of the less talked about aspects really of of the Bible, I think, is the grace, and it's gonna sound like an oxymoron, but the grace of suffering.

39:07 I mean, don't want to talk about it, you know, if I'm being honest with you. But there is a grace in suffering. And I do want you to know that that doesn't mean that every one of us will one day bear the crown of martyr. It doesn't mean that every one of us in this room will one day have that, you know, we paint the picture of the, you know, the gun to your head situation. Will you renounce your faith in Christ?

39:34 It could, but we ought to expect that there will be some level of suffering coming, for our faith, not because I'm suffering a consequence for a dumb thing that I did, but suffering for our faith. And so in closing, really, there's just these four points. Number one, preach preach Christ. That's that's what's most important. You know, when we see other brothers and sisters that are that are preaching, sharing Christ with with other people, boy, I need to be...

40:07 I'm speaking for myself is I need to be willing to overlook things that the things that somebody does that I don't agree with or isn't how I would want to do. I'm not talking about sin issues. But if they're preaching Christ, just because they go to a church that's down the street from me or something, doesn't mean that that we are not united in that goal and shouldn't be praying for one another. I mean, because it's that idea of shield overlapping shield isn't like, well, we've got the WBF shields here, and then we've got we go to the Norwalk gathering. We got our own set of shields over there.

40:45 No, we we link the WBF with the gathering as long as we're preaching Christ. You know, that's that's what's most important. Make sure that our practice is matching our position. And we have a couple of Catholic folks. The one recalls himself a recovering Catholic.

41:04 So I have to... You really have to make a point that our position is not defined by our practice. It's our position is defined by Christ and our practice matches that position. So you got to make it's not a workspace thing. There is a message of hope.

41:41 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of things of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad and your reward in heaven will be great. For the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In Romans chapter eight, we know that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God if we are in Christ, regardless of the suffering. It said, I read a quote one time that said, love begins when someone makes someone else's needs more important than their own.

42:20 And I would submit to you that with the church in Philippi, Paul did just that. He set aside his own needs, what may have been actually best for him, and put the needs of those brothers and sisters in Philippi ahead. And I would also say, and this really fits with what we talked about this morning and heard in the Lord's Supper, God did the same thing with us. God saw our need for redemption. He saw our need for for being made clean, for being made new, and he placed that need of ours ahead of keeping his one and only son's hands and feet from being scarred and pierced and his body broken for us.

43:07 He set all of that aside for the needs of you and me to to be redeemed, to be brought back sacrificial atonement for us dying in our place. And I said at the beginning that we're gonna talk a lot about Paul and I don't want us to miss Christ in this. This is the most important thing is to live Christ in his obedience, in his humility, in his selfishness, and in his suffering. Know, and some some in this room are are suffering, not necessarily just the aches and pains of this life, but I know of three families at least in here. Well, there's multiple if you include there's...

43:52 That that have just in this last several weeks or month have lost a loved one. You know, and there's suffering. There there is is hard times happening now and and there'll be hard times ahead. But I know that if that person knew the lord that they're doing just fine. You know, it's us here that struggle.

44:16 But we have the desire to be with our father in heaven, to be with God. But the question is, you know, unless somebody in the last, you know, before I say this dies, we're all still here right now. What are we gonna do with the time we have left? Are we gonna live Christ? Understanding that dying is gain.

44:37 If you know the Lord, that's gain. But while we're here, will we we live Christ? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. May it...

44:51 The things that that are that are thought about as we leave not be anything that that I may have said but what your word may have have spoken to the hearts of the ones who have heard it as well as mine. We pray that that we would live Christ in our daily lives. We pray that we would run to you in every situation, especially when we're suffering, understanding that we will suffer, but it's a grace. And I don't stand here as one that claims to understand that fully, Lord. I don't.

45:28 But in the times where we are struggling, give us give us the strength to get through. Give us peace. Help us to live Christ in our daily lives. In your name we pray. Amen.