How to Be A Winner

Our exciting outreach drama that the young people produce along with Children's Ministry, one week. So it won't be next week, it will be two weeks from tonight and then the following Friday and Saturday. So that's Wednesday, March 6th, 8th, and 9th, and these should be on everyone's seat or near one of your seats. We did that because we felt like many of you didn't know what was coming. This is such a quality event, it's a great outreach, plus it's also something you want to bring your family members to. This also gives the folks a little more time to prepare, but mainly we did it because we didn't think most people really knew it was even coming. So two weeks away, you can be planning for it and be sure to come to at least one performance and bring someone. It's an all original drama with, I understand you can tell by the drawing on here that it has something to do with seeking the Lord in the fifties, or what is, yes, okay. So it's going to be kind of different. Jan called it a Christian Greece. So alright, I think the text tonight is so powerful, I'd like to read it just as it is and then we'll spend about 30 minutes developing it together. Philippians 1, and let's begin in verse 21. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I'm going to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him. Since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I have. It's been said that the toughest part of confronting Iran's fighting troops is the fact that they have been schooled and educated to believe that they are fighting what's called a jihad, a holy war, and that because they're in the midst of a holy war, if they were to give up their life on the battlefield confronting the satanic aggressors, i.e., the allied forces, that those soldiers who gave up their life in the midst of that confrontation would automatically be lifted to a heavenly reward, standing before Allah and blessed with a much greater reward that they could get any other way. The reason why this is a bit awesome is because such a motivation is very difficult for anyone to discount in the lives of these men, and in fact it's been said that a man who does not fear death is the most difficult man to overcome. And so that's why I think you're seeing this protracted bombing and extended preparations. In this passage, likewise, we're looking at a man who does not fear death. I don't know about you, but I know I went through a period in my life when I came to grips with death. How many of you have had a close to death experience? It's an awesome thing, isn't it? You have a flash sometimes. You wonder, is this it? On occasion, I've heard people say that they see their life just go by and just like that. When we confront death is when we really know what we believe and what's in our hearts. And very interestingly, Paul here reveals himself as a man who's confronted death many times and he's not afraid. Now, I want to go back and just before I dive into what that means to us, I want to remind us of our main theme from last week. And if you weren't here, you may want to jot this down. Here's what we said last week. That verse 21 is sort of the key verse of Paul's attitude about life and death. He says in verse 21, for to me to live, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's what goes in those blanks. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. We said it was this way. We said that that is what it meant to live the Christ-centered life. We've all heard that term, to live the Christ-centered life. What does that mean? Well, to live the Christ-centered life means to seek Christ first and His cause is the most important thing in your life. To glorify God and to expand or extend the kingdom are the most important things in your life. It's those two driving motivations that propel you through life. That's the way Paul lived his life. Now, Paul says, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain or to die is even better than to live for Christ. It's clear that Paul had no deep attachments to this world, that heaven was his home, not the earth, that his longing was to be there and not here, that he was, in a word, homesick for heaven. He was homesick for heaven. He longed to be there. How often do we think of heaven in those terms? How often do we find ourselves longing to be there? I wonder about that sometimes. I mean, for us, many of us, the idea of going to heaven is like spending a long weekend in a Red Roof Inn. I mean, I guess it's okay, but you don't really look forward to it all that much, you know? Not Paul. I mean, for him, going to heaven was going to be an exciting extension of what he'd longed for all of his life since he'd come to Christ. He says these words. He's wrestling with all this on the inside. He says these words. He says, you know, it's better for you if I stay. But it's better for me if I go. Don't you wish people could say that about you? I thought about that. It's usually the opposite, they say. It's better for you if I go and better for me if I stay. Anyhow, Paul clearly had set his affections on heaven. But he says, either way, I can be a winner. I can be a winner if I stay. I can be a winner if I go. If I stay, I put my affections on Christ and on his kingdom. And if I go, well, that's far better. And I want to talk for a few minutes tonight about why. Why could he say to die is gain? Now, just early yesterday morning, one of our elders lost his mom, a 93-year-old believer in Jesus. And now she's at home with the Lord. I wouldn't be surprised tonight if several of you here are dealing with a loved one who maybe is facing death. And, folks, let's be honest. We don't know. This may be our last day. And there's so much reason to understand why heaven should be something that we learn to set our affections upon. This isn't pie-in-the-sky stuff. This is a motivation for living. Let me give you five reasons. Number one, here's what Paul would say. He's looking forward to heaven. To die is gain because there he will experience the real presence of Jesus. Paul will get to do what he's always wanted to do, and so will we. Paul will get to ask Jesus the questions he's always had. What was it like before you created the world? Jesus, what was it like up there when it was just you and the Father and the Spirit and the angels? And why did you create the world in the first place? Many might ask him the question, Lord, what did it feel like to leave heaven? What did it feel like to leave that place of exaltation and glory? And many might ask him, Lord, can you really create a rock that you can't lift? And then he'll say, Lord, why did you turn water into wine? Why didn't you make it grape juice? It would have made it so much easier for the Baptists and the other people that all these years have had these struggles. And knowing Paul and reading him for years, now I can tell you this, he'd ask Jesus some real heavy questions too. He'd say, Lord, why the blood? Why the blood? Why do you put so much weight on the blood all the way back in the old covenant and in the new covenant? Why the blood? Why is this such a bloody religion? And I'm sure he'd ask him, Lord, why the cross? Is that the only way it could have happened? And I can just sense Paul pouring out these difficult... What question would you ask Jesus tonight? What would be your top two or three? Jesus, why is there pain? Why are there wars? Why did you let the devil do what he did? One reason why to die is gain is because we get to stand with Jesus and experience his presence. Not just hearing an inaudible voice and nudging in our spirit, but hearing him speak. How do you picture that? How do you see him? What is he appearing as to you? When we're in his real presence, we get to hear him speak and we get to hear him laugh. Have you ever wondered what Jesus laughs like? I wonder what his laugh's like. I wonder what he sings like. Heaven is a place where we're going to experience some things that we can't imagine, and one of the most profound things is going to be just being with him. We're not going to have to play hide and seek with his wisdom. We're going to know it. And Paul said to die is gain because I'm going to be with Jesus. I'm going to hear your voice, Lord, and see your smile, and know who you are. Secondly, Paul would say to die is gain because there I'll be released from my kingdom burden. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11 and get your aerobics for tonight. Your finger aerobics. 2 Corinthians 11. Flip back a couple pages, everybody. 2 Corinthians 11. Here Paul says in verse 28 and 29, talking about the churches that he parented throughout the regions, he says this, Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? Do you sense in those words a man who is identifying with his people? I want to submit to you that one of the reasons why Paul thought to die was gain because he was carrying a heavy load of care and concern. How many of you here are home group leaders tonight? God bless you home group leaders. I love you, and I appreciate you, and I do pray for you, and even if I don't get to be with you in your groups individually like I'd like to, I think about a true home group leader has a heart that carries the weight of their people. It's a pastor's heart. Their people's burdens become their burdens. Their joys become their own joys. And folks, one of the reasons why Paul thought to die was gain is because he'd been carrying some of this stuff, and it was heavy duty. And churches were growing up and dying right in front of his face. Some were flourishing. Some were encountering things they didn't know how to handle. One of the things I was shocked by, or not shocked, but really touched by, I suppose I should say, when we were at the national prayer breakfast a few weeks ago, a brother from Romania, a man who had stood, and I don't know all the names, so forgive me, but in that giant square to announce to the people that Ceausescu had been killed, the one who'd been the very abhorrent dictator, and this man stood up to announce to these 200,000 people. Well, this man turned out to be a pastor who they had called to address the people before this news had arrived, and he was going to address the people to talk to them about God because this revolution was taking place, and he got to make the announcement. Well, he shared just briefly at this dinner prior to the president's prayer breakfast, and he said that throughout Romania now there were pastors who were ready to go and serve God and the things of God, but didn't have any equipment, didn't have any Bibles, didn't have any real substantial training or tools, but they had such a burden in their hearts, and all they needed was the training, and all they needed was someone to support them to get out there, and God spoke to me about supporting a pastor, a counterpart of mine in Romania who had a burden, because I know that burden, and any one of you tonight who cares for another believer or a group of believers, there is a burden, there's a weight. Paul said, it's going to be better to go to heaven because I'm going to be able to shift that burden over to the Lord. Can I suggest to you possibly that this point doesn't make any sense to you? Maybe you don't carry any burden. Maybe the only one you're really thinking about is you. Maybe you ought to let the Lord speak to you about that. Thirdly, Paul says, I'm looking forward to heaven because I'm going to be delivered from physical harm. Back up just a couple of verses. How would you like this to be your biography? Verse 23, 2 Corinthians 11, 23. Are they servants of Christ? I am more. I have worked much harder. I've been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Now folks, I don't want to get off too far on this, but you cannot conceive of how painful. That punishment was designed to literally bring a man to the point of death. But not kill him. He said five times. They used in those days a leather whip, but in the end of them, if you read this in any Bible dictionary, at the end of the leather whip was pieces of glass and metal. Tied at the end of each one of the little thongs that came out. And that's how they whipped them. Their back was just shredded. I came in five times. Three times, verse 25, I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and day in the open sea. I've been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. To die is gain. What a life. I love people who say being a Christian is a wimpy conviction. Let them read those verses. Why did Paul so want to go? Because to him, there was going to come relief from all of this persecution, and all this hardship, and all this physical suffering. And I'm not even talking here about 2 Corinthians chapter 12, where he talks about what? His thorn in the flesh. Which some people argue was a person. Some people argue was a physical ailment, like an eye condition or something else. All we know was it's described as something in the flesh, and so it seemed to bother him bodily, and the point was that, no, he wasn't married, it wasn't his mother-in-law. I saw someone say that. It wasn't it. I've heard that. That's not it either. But, Paul's saying, I'm looking forward to heaven because there's a day that's going to come that I'm going to be relieved from all this physical harm. Just one night, Paul thinks, I'm going to get a whole night's sleep. Without fear of being invaded upon or violated in some way. And then number 4, Paul says, to die is gain because there I'm going to experience complete sanctification. Flip over to Romans, would you? Chapter 7. Remember, Wednesday night's Bible study night. It's kind of hard to do without one. Let's look at Romans 7, verse 15. Nudge your next door person there and look on with them. Romans 7, verse 15. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. How many here have ever struggled with verse 15? I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but I do what I hate. Paul's saying that the law of sin continues to work in his being. And I can't tell you how many times I've said to the Lord, why do you keep putting up with this? And I have to go to my wife and ask her to forgive me, and I have to go to my staff, ask them to forgive me, and I have to go to you. And we just keep battling with sin, don't we? We keep struggling with those same temptations that I talked about on Sunday. Paul's thinking, there's a day that's coming that I'm going to be wholly, completely sanctified. That the work of God will have been completed in me, and sin will have no more effect on me, and I'm not going to succumb to it, and I'm not going to lose my temper, and I'm not going to compromise, and I'm not going to withhold, and I'm going to be all that God wants me to be, and it's coming. To die is gain. It's okay to say hallelujah there. Because I'm struggling, and you're struggling, we all do. We know our weaknesses and our sin. Paul said, there is a day that's coming when I'm going to be free from condemnation. Because there is now, verse 1 of chapter 8, Romans, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He's saying, basically, I know it's true, but still I struggle with it. And I'm looking forward to being with Jesus, because I'm not going to struggle with it anymore. And then number 5, Paul says, to die is gain because there's a promise coming for an end of personal loneliness and pain. You see, Paul knew what it meant to be alone. He knew what it meant to be rejected. He knew what it meant to want to give love and have someone say, get out of here. Stone the man. He knew what it meant. Some of you have family members, and you're trying so hard to share Jesus with them. And they say, get out of here, in essence. Don't want to hear it from you. Let me alone. And you feel a little bit isolated and lonely. Some of you have spouses that you so desperately want to share Christ with. They don't care. Paul knows what it meant. He knew the pain of being rejected, of betrayal, of being misunderstood. Paul knew what it was like to feel pain in his body, as we've already described. We can turn those off now. He knew what it meant to struggle, as all of us do, with everyday life. And so Paul said, for me to live as Christ, to serve Jesus in His cause, but to die is gain, book me on the next flight. I'm ready to go home. How many of you are ready to go home tonight? I wonder. I mean, honestly, I wonder. I wonder myself. I wonder if I'm really ready. You know, it seems to me that our lives are awfully complicated. Not quite as simple as having Christ in the center and His cause is uppermost in our hearts. I'm not sure how many people are really homesick for heaven. I'm not sure how many of us would say, Lord, I'm ready tonight. How many of us would say, well, you know, geez, I better clean up my act if it's tonight, you know. Or, Lord, I haven't experienced this yet, or I haven't been able to do that yet. I've got this big plan going, Lord, just give me five more years and it's going to come together and I'll be able to really bless the kingdom of God with money or something else. I don't know. Stuff and people and feelings and priorities and ideas and concerns and cares seem to squeeze out that simple, pure love in my heart. I really wrestled with this today, yesterday. David Hunter is a man that some of you know who serves the Lord. He and his wife, Betsy, over in the nation of Turkey. Tim and Linda Wright spent a year with him. David is probably one of the men that I could say that I know that without a doubt, for him to live as Christ and to die as Cain, no price was too great for him to pay. To serve in Turkey, to leave the comfort of this culture and embrace that one and do what God's called him to do. He just absolutely knew it was God's will for his life. When he was back here, I think it was two years ago, it'll be three this summer. He was very much at peace with it, but by the end of that little furlough, he was ready to go back, to live his life for Christ in Turkey. That's what he was called to do. He was the guy, by the way, for those of you who always wonder if God knows your needs, who came back five years before and sat with me up at the Ponderosa one day and said, I've come back because the Lord wants me to get married. I said, that's great, David. I know. He said, I've been lonely and the Lord just wants me to have a companion. I said, great. What's she going to be like? Well, she's going to be tall and very attractive and very smart and she's going to have a burden for Turkey. I said, I can imagine the tall, very attractive and intellectual, but I've never met a woman with a burden for Turkey of any description. I mean, this is absolutely the truth. We kind of laughed over our salad bar about it and he said, that's it. It wasn't. Friends, I'm not exaggerating. It wasn't two months later that he went down to Washington, D.C. and met Betsy, and I forget what her maiden name was, who, tall and very attractive gal, has a master's degree in economics or something like that, business, and has a burden for Turkey. Been to Turkey as a missionary. There it was. And how come David didn't walk around and say, Lord, is this really you? He had the word and that was it. And they were married shortly thereafter and God's blessed him. Well, what can we do to be able to say at any time to the Lord for me to live as Christ and to die as game? Let me just end with these three quick things. Number one, Paul says it back in Philippians. Now, I'm sorry for leading you around. He says, now, whatever happens. Look at that. Whatever happens. What's happening to you? Does whatever cover it? Whatever's happening to you, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. I've just jotted down three things here. First of all, standing firm in the faith. That's number one. Standing firm. First thing you need to do in order to be able to say for me to live as Christ and to die as game is to stand firm. The one thing the world does not need to see anymore is inconsistent Christians. It does not need to see those who are hot one weekend and cold and disobedient the next. It doesn't need to see them who are all fired up here and go out there and do their own kind of compromising, God dishonoring thing. Paul's saying stand firm. The word means to be steadfast. Not in being moved around. If you're a believer, you're a believer. You're not a believer every once in a while or four days a week or just when you go to church. You're a believer day in and day out. That's who you are. Stand firm in it. One way that we do that and I've been saying this over and over again only because it's where I live and I think it's where most of us do. The only way to do that is by continuing just to nurture your relationship with Jesus. Just be with him. Please just be with him. Just give him the 30 minutes of the day when you start and then tune into him during the day and whatever you have determined. Some of you give him hours every day. Some of you don't know what I'm talking about yet. You see, if you really want to stand firm, if you really want to look forward to heaven, you've got to know, folks, Jesus as your dearest friend. You've got to walk with him. You've got to want to see him face to face, don't you? You want to see him face to face. We do real well these days with communications and faxes and telephone calls. I suppose one day we're going to even have screens where you can see people talking. It opens up a whole Pandora's box. If you ever want to see me, don't. Sometimes I just want to push the blackout button on that TV phone if it ever comes. But there's something that's really a treasure when you see someone face to face. You ever get off an airplane and watch the reunions? I mean, these people probably called just before they left, but now they are. There's one of my dear friends here tonight at this service. He's a pastor of a large church out in Philadelphia now. We'd worked together a couple of different summers in the late 70s. Our hearts kind of got bonded together, but the Lord drew John out east. He went to seminary and got his education in the things of God and was serving the Lord. We'd communicate every once in a while. We went for a couple of years when we didn't. He thought that I was really losing my mind when we started this weird church that wasn't Presbyterian. But then I realized that he kind of did too, so then we were all right. Then we would pass a letter now and then. We'd try to pass some phone calls back and forth. About a month ago, John walked in over here on a Sunday morning. He looked almost exactly the same as he did the last time I've seen him, which was several years ago. He didn't say these kind of things about me, but I understand that. We saw each other. That face-to-face bonding just happened like that. It was like the years didn't matter anymore. We just spent two hours together yesterday over lunch. We got up to speed. Our hearts were just clicking on the same things, the same vocabulary, the same ideas, the same excitements, the same goals. We were just excited again. That's the way it's going to be with Jesus. It's okay to pass letters, Lord. Thanks for yours. Are you getting mine? We're talking back and forth, but we're face-to-face. We can have a taste of that now, can't we? How many of you know when you're getting through to Jesus? There's a difference. It doesn't happen every day, but there's got to be days in our lives we're getting through to him. That's the only way I know to stay steadfast. Build your devotional life. Is there one person here tonight that wouldn't say that your goal right now is, Lord, I just want to love you more. I want to know you better and love you more. I don't think there's one of us that wouldn't say that. We can't stand firm any other way. Number two, standing firm and then striving for the gospel. Striving. Look at what it says here. Contending or striving as one man for the faith of the gospel. See, another way that you begin to look toward heaven is because you're pouring your energies, you're striving, contending for what's important to God now, so that then you can receive the reward of being with him and receiving his commendation. You know, if this life is the focal point of your energies and what you're accumulating and amassing, how many of you know that it's not all that easy to consider leaving? On occasion, when I've been away at a resort or a nice beach or whatever, I'll hear people talk about spending the whole year jaunting around from resort to resort. They don't have any desire to go home. They want to just go to the next resort and see what that's like. Contrast that, if you will, to what all of us are seeing these days on our television screens. What do you see when a young man or a young woman, in some cases, comes on that screen and says, I just want to do my job and go home. I just want to do what I've been trained to do. Whatever it takes, I'm willing to do it. I just want to do it so that I can go home. And if you want to have heaven be a desire of your heart, don't be a resort hopper. Be a soldier in the kingdom of God. Pour yourself out for the things that God cares about. You know, when you start dodging a few of the enemy's bullets and taking some risks and putting your life out there on the line a little bit, it makes heaven look all the more sweet. Lord, I just can't wait to go home. So important. And if you're not feeling anything right now, if you're just as cold as when you came in here, and brother or sister, I implore you, get along with the Lord and find out what's going on in your heart. Because time's slipping away. Bill Bright said, if you're ever going to do anything great for God, do it right now. Don't plan to do it ten years from now, because you won't have the opportunity. Be a soldier. And number three, we're standing firm. We're striving for the gospel. And number three, suffering with dignity. Paul says, for it's been granted to you, verse 29, on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. There's no doubt in my mind that as you follow Christ and fully live for Him, at the cost of your own life, if you're putting Christ at the center and His cause is number one in your life, you are going to encounter persecution. Peter tells us that. You see, Paul went from church to church, and you know what greeted him at most stops? Riots. People didn't want to see him. They felt the guy was an imposter. The Jews hated him. The Gentiles hated him. His own countrymen hated him. Everywhere he went, he was in trouble. We just read about it. And here in Philippians, the context is, you know, he's running from a prison where he's already in chains for the gospel. Some of us, do we know how good we have at church? The most suffering we've done, you know, is to sit in the sanctuary when it's been too cold. And you sure let God and me know about it, all right? Or you had to park your car up in David Weiss. You didn't get to park out here. Honestly, really. Have you ever thought how good we have it here? I know it's not perfect, and you know, we're trying. Believe me, we know all this stuff. We're trying. We're doing our best. But do you want to know what I think causes a person to long for heaven? It's when they look at their life, and they're bearing some things that they can't explain or understand. But they do it unto God, whatever it is. And your heartbeat just begins to be set on seeing the Lord Jesus come through for you. It's not that we seek answers for all of our questions and all of our pains, necessarily. The answer isn't the issue. It's the Lord that's the issue. And He brings the answers when He's ready and when He knows we can bear them. Paul was in this prison. I don't hear Paul whining and complaining. Remember how the Philippian church started? Remember the story in our first week? How'd the church start? He was in jail. And what was he doing in the bottom of this dungeon in chains? Singing hymns and praising God. And it was such a testimony that the jailer said, you know, when the earthquake came and they didn't run out, the jailer said, what is with you people? Contrast that to us. You know, when something goes wrong in our life, we say, oh God, why are you letting this happen to me? I'm really a good Christian. I'm having a hard time. And we start murmuring and whining and complaining. And God isn't impressed. I think that Christians who suffer anything and do it in a right spirit are a testimony to the world. I think God is glorified. This weekend, as we talk about the crisis of physical affliction, you're going to hear from some Christians who are suffering. And you're going to hear how God's using it in their lives to glorify Him. Well, that's all I have time to share tonight. For to me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. As long as I'm on this earth, I'm going to live for Jesus and His cause, and I'm going to do everything I can to encourage you to do the same. But if I die, it's going to be far better for me because I'm going to have the real presence of Jesus with me. I'm going to be sanctified from my sins. I'm going to be lifted. My pains and my loneliness and my suffering are going to be over. And I'm going to live with Him forever. I invite you to join with me in that. Let's stand together. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Lord, Your Word is so powerful to us. Lord, You're so clearly worthy of our worship. Oh, we love You tonight, Jesus. Would you just select the one thing in your life tonight, church, that maybe is an obstacle toward fully devoting your life to Him? Is there a burden tonight? Is there a struggle tonight? Present it to the Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Lord, You are so precious to me. Lord, You are so precious to me.