I love it when there's a group or a congregation and there are mixed ages. It's a very, very important thing, I think. When the ages get together, the older can learn from the younger and the younger can learn from the older. So it's a great privilege to bring the Word of God to you. Turn to the book of Philippians. The epistles are very key books in the New Testament that we have. There are four gospels. There are many more epistles. Most of those epistles are written by Paul. I'm having the privilege in the Sunday School of teaching through the epistle of 1 Peter. I have never taught through an epistle ever. I am really liking it. When we come to this epistle of Philippians, and really it's true within 1 Peter also, Paul answers questions that arise. Paul, in this book right here, is in prison. He started this church at Philippi. He's writing a letter to them. I want to read to you in the context of really one verse that we're going to be looking at, and that is verse 21. But I want to read to you verses 12 all the way down through 26. Those who have ears, let us hear the word of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed And in that, I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh, is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again." Embedded within this section right here, in verse 21, Paul answers, I think, the most important question that a Christian needs to ask himself. And that is, what is life? It's been a long time since I was this age. But I can remember when I was a young person, And I came to know the Lord when I was 12 years of age, raised in a Christian home. I can never remember not going to church. It took us 25 miles to get there, most of it on a dirt road. My father was the first one there, opened up the church. The last one to leave, he closed the church. We never missed church. I don't care what the weather was. We just never missed church. So I was raised in that, but it wasn't until I was 12 years of old old, that I realized that having Christian parents and being raised in a Christian home wasn't the end of it. I wasn't a Christian, and I became a Christian. And then as a young person, I began to wonder what life was really all about. What was it all about? Would I ever get married? College? I didn't even think of those terms. I went to college because my friend and my cousin went to college. And I thought, well, I guess I'll go to college. Didn't know what I was going to end up doing. My friend was a teacher. Oh, okay, I'll become a teacher. But listen, what we're going to look at tonight applies to anyone who's a Christian. I don't care how old you are. It applies to you. What is life? Paul answers that question with seven words. That's all it takes for Paul. Here's what he says. For me to live is Christ. That's what life was all about to Paul. Everything else was secondary. Secondary. And this, I believe, is the most thorough test that we need to ask ourselves. What is life? Because if you're younger, you have your life in front of you. My life is mainly behind me. And recently, I heard a message by Jerry Bridges, on finishing well. That's where I am. I'm in life and I'm in the finish mode. I left the starting blocks a long time ago. We're all at different stages, but we all need to be focused on what we're going to hear tonight. What is life? You see, with Paul, Christ was central. And the way you can tell what's really important to you is what is central. And Paul's love for Christ dominated him and controlled him. It controlled his thoughts, his words, and his actions. So that's what we want to look at tonight. Before we go, Father, let's pray. Our great God, we are coming before you tonight, looking at your word. And I pray, Father, that you would help me to speak clearly, to speak accurately, and to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I pray for those that are here tonight that you would give them ears to listen, And that you will use this in my life, in their lives. And that we would be a people here, in this part of the world, who have a clear focus on what life is all about. And that we would live our life for the praise of your glory. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. We'll look at four questions tonight with you related to what is life. The first one is this. How does the world answer this question, what is life? The reason why this is so important is that all of us are a part of this world. And whether you realize it or not, this world can affect you radically. Radically. So there are various views around that try to explain what life is all about. I want to give you five views that come from the world. The first one is the Epicurean view. And that view is simply this. Life means pleasure. Life means fun. Life means having a good time all the time. And this was popular during the New Testament period. That's why it's called the Epicurean view, because it was happening during this time. For them, life was eat, drink, and be merry. That's what life was all about. The second view is called the Stoic view. And that's a view that life is something to be endured. It means putting up with the harshness of life. And one of the things that is, I think, very apparent is, life can be harsh. Cruel. And so this view is living means endurance. It means the determination to hold on. It means when the going gets tough, the tough get going. The third view is the cynics view. It's life is really nothing. There's no purpose in life. It's a cruel joke. The third view is the humanist view. And this is that life provides an opportunity to improve the life of mankind. Now really, there's a lot of Christianity involved with this one also. We need to be concerned about our neighbor. We need to be concerned about the poor. We need to be concerned about justice. But you see, if that's all there is to life, that's not it. And the fifth one is the religious view. You see, it's just performing religious duties. And we're called upon to do good works. But that's not what life is all about. Just that. Being open-minded, being tolerant. So those are views that are out there in the world. But what about believers? What about believers? Here's the second question. What was it that made Paul come to this conclusion that for me to live is Christ? It was simply the wonder of salvation. Phil is leading us through an unbelievable epistle. It's going to take him a while. And I think we kind of know that from the pace that we're going, right? I have some books at home by Martin Lloyd-Jones. It took him five years to preach through the book of Ephesians. There are eight volumes, and the first chapter is an entire volume. The second chapter is an entire volume. It's a key epistle. What does Paul start out with? What does he begin with? He takes from verses 3-14 to talk about this great salvation. That's what he opens up with. Because that was the motivating force behind Paul. His salvation. Now go to 1 Peter. What does Peter begin his first epistle? From verses 3 through verse 12, he does the same thing as Paul. He talks about salvation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul begins that way in verse 3. Peter begins that way in verse 3 of his epistle. And then he talks about, and I'm going to look at Peter here. Peter talks about why we can praise God. And it's because of our salvation. It's because of his mercy that we were born again. We were born again to a living hope and to an inheritance. And then he just keeps going on and adding layer upon layer. So what Phil is going to be doing for us in the opening of Ephesians, he's going to add layer upon layer upon layer on the motivation that drives Paul. It's Christ. That's the motivation. That's what keeps him going. Now, we're going to look at some other places. We're going to look, first of all, in 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 12 through 17. You see, Paul is constantly talking about salvation. Listen to these words. I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Turn back to Philippians chapter 3, verses 7 through 11. But whatever I gain..." And Paul, right before this, talks about what he could have boasted about in the flesh. He says, "...but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Paul simply delighted in and meditated on Christ, His person and work. Meditating is simply thinking about it. Taking the time to think about it. This morning, Phil gave us a ton to think about all during the week. And I want to challenge you about hearing what Phil gave us to think about that all week. What it means to be a child of God. You're a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Bear the family image well. Represent Christ well. Because people are watching you. I guarantee you. And they're wondering, when you live as a Christian, what makes this guy tick? He doesn't do things that everybody else does. He doesn't say things. That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. Now, the third question is this. What can become more important than Christ for believers? And my answer is anything. Anything can become more important. I like sports. I always envisioned myself as being this great athlete You can tell by this body, I don't have the body of an athlete. I went out for, in high school, I went out for football. My sophomore year, I played one game, got hurt, I was done. Okay, but there's my junior year, okay? I'm gonna come back for football my junior year. I didn't make it. You know why? I couldn't physically take it. I couldn't. We had two-a-day practices in the morning and in the afternoon. And I would go to my cousin's house after the morning practice and do nothing till the afternoon. I just physically couldn't take it and had to stop. that really bothered me. My friend's, one in particular, he was called, his name was Gene Long, he was called Horse. That's because he ran over people. And I remember one time in practice, he gave me a forearm shiver, and a forearm shiver is, you hit the guy right here with your forearm. It flattened me. I thought a truck hit me. Listen, sports is not what life is all about. Oh, you can like sports, but it's not what life is all about. Family. That's not what life is all about. Oh, it's important. Don't get me wrong. But it's not the key thing in life. And you can put whatever you want to out there. Possessions. Possessions. Car. House. Clothes. Work. Activities. There is nothing wrong in and of themselves, but when they become your God, When they become the most important thing in your life, that which you live for, they've replaced Christ in your life. The fourth question is this, how do we correct the problem when we honestly have to say that for me to live is really not Christ. For me, living is, and you fill in the blank, honestly tonight, fill it in, in your mind. And if there's anything else but Christ that fits in that blank, it can be good, it has its place maybe, But it can't be central. That's the key thing. Only Christ can be central in our lives as believers. If we're to live according to what the Word of God says, and you cannot get around what the Word of God says, it's Christ. So what do we do? Turn to Psalms 1. We start there. Psalm 1. Verses one and two. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Nor stand in the way of sinners. nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." That's where you start. Now, do you get the progression here? It starts out by walking. By walking. You're walking and you begin to notice something and then you stop walking and you're standing and focusing on it and then it moves to sitting. See the progression? See how that works? That's where we have to start. We have to be very, very careful, living in the world in which we live, that we're not sitting. You see, I think it was Martin Luther that says, I can't keep the birds from circling over my head. but I can prevent them from making a nest in my hat. See? Temptation is out there in the world. It's loaded. It's how we react to that. So there's the negative, but then there's the positive. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. This is it. This is what we delight in. This is what we delight in. Listen, every single day of your life, every single day in my life, I need to be in this book. It's not a matter of time. We all have time. It's just doing it. It's doing it. Remember I told you about Jerry Bridges? Jerry Bridges. I carry this around in my Bible. Finishing well. Four things you do every single day. You daily commune with God. That means you let Him talk to you. How does God talk to us in this book? That's why we call it God's Word. Okay? So you let God talk to you. Then I talk to Him. We call that prayer. You daily focus on your great salvation. That's key. And that's why you see Paul and Peter focusing on our great salvation when they start out their epistle. You daily offer yourself as a living sacrifice, Romans 12, 1 and 2. You daily see yourself as God's servant, as God's bond slave. And wherever you're going to be, wherever you go, whoever you're with, you're representing Christ. to everybody. And you daily acknowledge God's sovereignty, love, and wisdom. You see, God is going to work out, we call it providence, God on a daily basis is going to work out His providence in your life. And some of them Their hymn writer calls them frowning providences. We would call them things that we really maybe wished wouldn't happen. Last Sunday, at this time, we were with my daughter and her new little baby from Korea, Charlie. Oh, man. This guy is a little over a year. He's about this tall. You can't believe how he just has fit in. We're over to my daughter's house. He's there. Saw him for the first time. Today, we saw him again through Skype, you know, that computer you can look and see and all that. That's not my favorite way to talk to somebody. I prefer not to look at them. You know what? That was a wonderful time. But you know, and I told the Sunday School class that I teach this morning, there have been things that have happened in my family that have been hard. I mean really hard. But you know what? Everything that happens to me, And everything that happens to you as a Christian is for God's glory and your good. Not one thing is an exception to that. Not one thing. And there are hard things that happen. But you see, we need to anchor ourselves in the truth of God's Word. And when those hard times come, we beat it to God's Word. We go to our anchor and we begin thinking about, we begin reminding ourselves of God's truth. And that's what keeps us going. I want to read to you another portion of Scripture that I like to go to, to remind myself of who I am in Christ Jesus. It happens to be found in Ephesians. And it happens to be chapter two. This is where I go. when I want to remind myself of who I am in Christ. The first 10 verses. And you were dead. Could I tell you what I do? I take all the pronouns and I transfer them to personal. So, and I was dead That's how I read it when I'm by myself. Because I want to personalize that. I want to get the personal meaning. I'm going to read it the way Paul wrote it. But I encourage you to do that. And you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, my two favorite words in the Word of God, but God. being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." There's four views that people have of themselves spiritually. Your well, You're sick. Or you're dead. Those are three views that people have regarding themselves. What does the Word of God say? We're dead. You're a corpse, spiritually. You're dead. Now, you tell me how a corpse comes to life. Do you have any part in that? No. It's God. And that's why our salvation is so mind-boggling. According to Paul, if you could boast about one-tenth of one percent, you would be boasting. But he strips that away from you. You have nothing to boast about in yourself. Your salvation is all of God. And Paul just cannot help but communicate that. Everybody here falls on the economic spectrum somewhere. A little, more than a little, and you can go on from there. In the world in which we live, getting an inheritance is really important. So the kids are ready for the parents to kick off here. They're rubbing their hands, huh? Man, we're going to get it. When my mom died, she had $2,000. She didn't leave anything to her children. But you know what she left us with? A godly life. That's what she left us with. Listen, when the Bible talks about our inheritance and it does in Ephesians, it does in first Peter. We cannot even begin to imagine how great this is going to be. Did you notice when I read in Philippians that that Paul was struggling about his desires. He desired really to die, because he knew that if he died, he would be with Christ. I think it's so interesting he didn't say, when I die, I'm going to get to see Moses, Adam, He didn't talk about any of that. For Paul dying was to see Christ, to be with Christ. That's what it's all about. Oh, there are other people who are going to be there. But listen, you're not going to be focusing on those other people. You know who you're going to focus on? Christ and all His glory. That's what we're going to focus on. That's what we're going to focus on. I want to leave you with two questions. Is the Lord Jesus Christ central in your life? Now, if you profess to be a Christian. These questions are for you, if you're not a Christian. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to trust Him, His person and work, His death on the cross. But if you're a Christian, I don't care what your age is, is the Lord Jesus Christ central in your life? Another way to say this is, do you love Christ? And does this love dominate and control your life? Count Zinzendorf was a man who lived quite a while ago. Here's one of my favorite quotes. I have one passion. It is he and he alone. He referring to Christ. I have one passion in life. God helped this guy to have the same passion. Because I want to confess to you, I don't all the time. I get enamored with this world and all that the world can offer. I start looking at the car that goes down the freeway and passes me by. I start wishing I had this and that. I want to have one passion. It is He and He alone. And I want that for all of us. I hope this week, I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you kids, right here, right here. Sometime this week, if you're a professing Christian, Get by yourself and ask yourself this question. And I would encourage you to say it out loud. Is Jesus Christ the passion of my life? Is he central in my life? And if your answer is no, you confess that. and you go to His Word. When the Word is preached, you listen to that guy over there preach the Word to us, because that's what he does. That's what it's all about. I love knowing that when I come to church, I'm going to hear the Word of God preached. I could care less about a man's idea. I want to hear God's ideas. I want to hear what God has to say. And I would encourage you all sometime this week to ask yourself that same question. What is the central thing in my life? What's my passion? Our great God, I want to thank you for the truth of your word. I want to thank you that we have your word to us and we don't have to wonder how we're to live. We don't have to wonder what you are like. It is all revealed in your word to us. So help us all, regardless of our age here. To be in your word every single day. To come to you in prayer. To focus on our great salvation. To present ourself to you as a living sacrifice. And then to live knowing that all that you bring to us during each day comes from You and is for Your glory and our good. You are our great God. You are our Father. And as our Father, You treat us perfectly. And now I thank You for that. So during the week that lies before us, help us to focus on you to keep Christ central in our life. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.