And please take your Bibles and open up to the book of Philippians chapter 1. Or if you have a church Bible, page 1220 in your church Bible. It's going to be a two-part message that we're going to be looking at the next two Sunday mornings. So get used to finding the book of Philippians. The word primacy, I don't know if that's not a word that we use too often, but primacy has a... It means the fact of being preeminent or most important. If you think about it, everybody has something that would have that preeminent place in their life or that place of primacy. Some people might be education. There's some people that just live to learn. They're constantly seeking knowledge. And that's what their life's all about, maybe always seeking that better career, that better education to further that career. Some people, it's pets. I've noticed lately it just seems like everybody has a dog. There's a lady up in the highlands that I saw that she has a house that actually, did you see this last year or something, two years ago? She actually has a horse that lives in her house. I don't know why she doesn't live in the barn with a horse, but she just made it so the horse could come in. Obviously, I would say about her, the position of primacy in her home is the horse. And I think I'd probably be right. To some, it's family. It might be sports for the kids, or getting the kids where they need to go. And it's all about their life. If you really boiled their life down to what their life is all about, it'd be about trying to care for the kids, or try to care for their spouse, or make their spouse happy, or something like that. To some, it could be sports. Obviously, sports would have a position of primacy in many people's life that, to them, it's all about that team and what that team has going on. Whether they're winning or losing, it's all about that. Some people would be hobbies. I know somebody I knew growing up, they were a train enthusiast. And they would travel hundreds of miles away from their family just to work on that train. I mean, that was a big, big part of their life or something like that, that position of primacy. To some, it might be false religion. Certainly, there's some religious people that are, I mean, that has a position of primacy. It's about lighting candles. It's about praying for the dead. It's about doing all those things, right? But if you boiled it down in your life, what has the position of primacy? Like if you were to put it as one thing, this has the top position in my life. What would that one thing be? We're going to look at this morning and next Sunday morning is the gospel. And the fact that biblically, I believe I could say this with absolutely the authority of the Word of God, the Gospel is what should have the position of primacy in our lives. You think about the Lord Jesus Christ, if you were to summarize the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think if you talked about his actions, his actions, the summary word would be obedience, but the summary of the subject of his life, I believe we could say the subject of the life of Christ was the Gospel. There's verses that obviously would support that all the stories and word of God would support that but Luke 8 1 Jesus about Jesus who came to pass afterward that he Jesus went throughout every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and and twelve were with him. So he's traveling, what's it about? And by the way, the gospel, we'll see this, it's about the kingdom of God, but it's also about the Lord Jesus Christ and what Christ did. So he's going, he's preaching the gospel, the good news about the kingdom of God. Luke 19.10 says, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. What's that talking about? It's talking about the gospel. Why did he come? He came to reach people with the gospel. John 10.11, And the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. What is that? Again, that's the Gospel. That's why He came. He came to die. Why? So the Gospel, the Good News could be given. And so you think about Christ, and again, I think I can say with the authority of the Word of God, what Christ's life was about, it was about the Gospel. So let me ask you this this morning. Can you live the Christ life without the Gospel? And the answer is no. If the Gospel is not a priority, and there is no such thing as the primacy of the Gospel in my life, can I live the Christ life? I really don't believe I can. Because His life was all about the Gospel. And what we're going to look at with Philippians, and it just stood out to me as I was reading it last week, You think about the life of somebody like the Apostle Paul, and again, if you were to summarize their life, what is their life about? And it would be, their life is about the Gospel. And certainly we'll see that as we look at Paul. I could say he made the Gospel the primary thing in his life, but I honestly believe I could say that the Gospel was the most important thing in his life. I think that's different, isn't it? He's not saying, I'm burdened by this, I've got to make this the most important thing. Man, the most important thing is life by passion, by heart, by desire, because of Christ and the burden that he had to please the Lord. Imagine someday you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, would you be able to say at that judgment, Lord, nothing mattered so much to me as the gospel? That was the most important thing in my life. Now, as we look at this this morning, the word gospel is 104 times in the Word of God. And the gospel just means good news. It's the best news. I mean, if you ever hand somebody a track, I mean, feel free to say, I just want to share something with you of some good news. I mean, I just want to be an encouragement to you. I just want to be a blessing to you. This is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. And I just want to share that with you. It is the good news, specifically, again, about the Kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking to people that, if they die, they're going to stand before God. God's going to say, the law bears record against you that you're in your sin. The law bears record about you that you're guilty. And He's going to say to them, depart from me a curse and everlasting fire. And we could say to somebody like that today, look, Christ died for your sin. See, the wages of sin is death. Christ died. to pay the price for your sin. That's good news. He rose again for your life. Christ didn't stay in the grave, He didn't stay in the tomb, but He rose from the dead. Again, the good news is that Christ lives, and because He lives, we'll live also. I have everlasting life today because Christ is alive. And so again, the good news, and then we can say to them, the good news is He offers you forgiveness, and like we looked at, I think, last week, an abundant pardon. God is willing, more than willing, to forgive you today and to give you his gift of everlasting life. That's, again, good news. You know, that person can change their postcode from eternity in hell to eternity in heaven. See, is there today anything that would be better news than that? What an important message God's given to us. This past week, we were down in Interlethen, putting out some literature, Brother Washer and then George and myself. And as we were doing that, I walked up to a nursing home. There was an old man sitting out in front of it. And as I walked up to him, he was reading something, and he had hearing aids in both ears. And I said, I just want to give you something I've written. I hope it'll be an encouragement to you. And he said, what? And I started speaking very loudly. I wrote this. I just hope this is a blessing to you. You wrote this? He takes it. Then he goes like this. Thank you. He said it that loud. And I'm like five feet from him. And I'm walking away. And I'm thinking, this is what I thought. I wonder how many people are going to say to me as they enter into heaven, thank you. Think about it. Because I made a difference in their life. I impacted their life with the gospel. And I hope that man gets saved. That man was just saying, thank you for what you gave me. But stop and think about it. How many people are going to say thank you to you as they enter into heaven saying, I'm so glad that you took the time to give me this good news. Thank you. Thank you. We've got an important message. Obviously, as you think about it like that, what could be more important than that message that God's given to us with the gospel? And so our text, it's gonna be the book of Philippians, just some times that Paul speaks about the gospel here in this book, several of them in chapter one, and then one in chapter two, I think, and one in chapter four, which we're not gonna get to this week, but just gonna look at three of them this morning. Let's pray and ask the Spirit of God to speak to our hearts. Father, I pray about the primacy of the gospel in our lives. Father, I pray that we'd honestly be able to say nothing's more important to me than the gospel. And Father, I pray, if it's not, then I pray the Spirit of God would touch those things that are not important. Father, they have taken that place of such importance. And so I pray, God, give me wisdom as I preach and teach the Word of God this morning. You've spoken my heart about it, as I saw it and see it in the life of Paul. And so may the Spirit of God help me as I speak. I pray, give us grace to listen. And I pray, God, that you would just speak loud and clear to our hearts this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, why is the gospel so important? It's basically what we're looking at, or the position of primacy that the gospel should have. If you think about it, this morning, we have no fellowship without the gospel. There is no such thing this morning as church when you take the gospel out. I mean, what we have as we're gathered here this morning and meeting with one another is only and solely because of the gospel. Paul said it in verse five. He said he's thankful for them. And actually, let's start at verse three and read from there. He goes, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Now, I didn't read verse five first. So I'll just tell you, he's thanking God because they got saved. He's thankful that they're born again. It's like a father writing to his son, or a brother in the Lord, or sister in the Lord. He's just thankful to God. God, I'm so thankful for that believer in Philippi that accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Verse four, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy. And Paul would go to prayer and he'd just be so thankful to bow his head before God and to say, God, I'm so thankful for those Philippians. I'm so thankful for what you're doing in their life. I'm so thankful for the relationship that we have in Christ because they're saved. I'm so thankful. God, meet their needs today. God, provide for them today. He's burdened for them. Why? Because of the gospel. Because verse five, he explains it, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. He's saying, I'm just so thankful, I'm so burdened in prayer. Why? Because we have united together by what? By the Gospel. The Gospel united us. Every one of us this morning are in a physical family, either by birth or by adoption. There are two ways that we have to enter into a human family. And as you think about it with regard to the Gospel, The gospel is what either birthed us, both and, birthed us into the family of God, and it is what allowed us to be adopted by God into his family. And so the gospel facilitated our adoption. Ephesians 1, 5 and 6 says that God, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That God in his love said to you, I'll adopt you. I'd like to have you in my family. By the Lord Jesus Christ, by the blood of the cross, by the sacrifice of my son, that I long to have you as my own, that you are my child by adoption, that God did that. The gospel adopted us. The gospel is what allowed us to be born again. John chapter 3, Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, See this morning, if you're not adopted by the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not born again, then you're not a part of the family of God, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. On Friday, we were hiking the Graymare's Tale, and coming back down, we had a divine appointment with a guy named Chris, and Chris said to me, as we're walking down the lower part of that, he said, you know what? This is what he said to me, I have a friend that is a born-again Christian. We hadn't talked about born-again, we hadn't used the term or anything like that. And I always rejoice when I hear that over here, when somebody says, born again, because there's a definiteness about the fact that this person is saved. But think about that statement, born again Christian. There's no such thing as anything other than a born again Christian. If you're here this morning, and you've never been born again, you've never been adopted, the sad thing is this, you're not a part of the family of God. There's some big earthly families, I googled it, I was curious what's the biggest earthly families that there are, or who's had the most kids. By natural birth, there was a woman, her name's not even listed, but she was the wife of Fyodor Vassilyev, a peasant in Russia. There's a reason he was a peasant, all right? In 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. She had 69 kids. That's incredible, isn't it? I mean, that woman, be fruitful and multiply, right? 69. That's incredible. By adoption, the biggest family I could find online, they have 34 children. Well, actually, they're getting Their family is getting bigger at this point, 2014, 29 of whom were adopted from other countries, including Mexico, Ghana, Ukraine. Now their family is about to get even bigger as they adopt two more. That's precious that apparently they're very wealthy and they've got the love and nurture and ability to take all these people into their family from all these different countries by adoption. But 34, you know, I look at six and I think McQuiver's full. But I mean, we can have a big earthly family. But at some point it ends, doesn't it? At some point, it gets too much for time and care and concern, but think about the family of God this morning. This morning, God has time, He's got concern for anybody that would desire to get saved. But beyond that, can I say to you this morning that I want you as my brother in Christ, I want you as my sister in Christ? that if you're not my brother in Christ, that if you're not my sister in Christ, that we have no relationship that God has given? See, what an unbeliever doesn't understand is there's something different about a friendship with somebody that's not saved as a believer and somebody that is saved. Now, I've got some good friends that are unsaved, and I thank God for them. But you know what? We don't see eye to eye. We don't see heart to heart. There is no relationship like you have as a brother or sister in Christ. And I want that. I'm burdened about that. I want them to be my brother in Christ. There's people this past week I've witnessed to that I hope to someday look at and say, praise God, you're my brother in Christ, or you're my sister in Christ. You know, that's where it comes from. So why is the gospel important? The gospel is why we're here. The gospel is what made us a part of the family of God. So are you born again? Are you adopted? Are you part of God's family? We have no fellowship today without the gospel. And then the gospel has no defenders or establishers without people that see the gospel as a priority. We're to be gospel defenders and establishers, verse seven. says, even as it is for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. Just like their spiritual father, by God's grace, this church in Philippi, they stood to defend the gospel. They stood to confirm the gospel or establish the gospel. You know, you think about the church in Philippi, it was born in persecution. Persecution is coming in our text, what we're going to look at. But the church in Philippi was born in persecution. Paul and Silas had, they'd done evangelism by the river, and they'd led Lydia to the Lord, they'd gone back to her house, and then they're doing ministry in Philippi, and they cast the demon out. And it obsessed these men that were making money off this demon. And it was a demon-possessed young lady. And so when they realized that this had taken place, they took them before the magistrates. The magistrates said to strip them of their clothing, and they whipped them, Paul and Silas. And in prison, Paul and Silas are singing praise to God. And then we know the story, as God sends the earthquake, the prison doors are opened. The bonds fall off Paul and Silas. And then the Philippian jailer comes in. And this story, actually, if you think about it later, after you think about this message, that story encapsulates everything that we're talking about today, as far as the primacy of the gospel. Because as that takes place, Paul and Silas, as the doors open, Paul and Silas don't go, hey, we're free, that's great. Just what we wanted, just what we were burdened about, our liberty. They see an opportunity as this man comes in to begin to speak to this man about the Lord. The man gets saved, the Philippian jailer. And the early church is established in persecution. So, I mean, these people, as Paul's writing to them and saying to them, I'm so glad that you're a defender of the gospel. I'm so glad that you are confirming the gospel. He's writing to people that are right in the thick of the battle for the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel. And so our first point under that is we are to defend the gospel. or to defend the gospel. Do you know the gospel is under attack today? The gospel is under attack. I've shared this story recently because this happened about maybe five months ago. But down in England, two street preachers, I think it was even last year, it was a delayed court case, but two street preachers were put on trial because they had been preaching the gospel, obviously, and they'd been baited by a homosexual. that accused them of hate crime, chased them all about the park. The police came, didn't arrest those people, but arrested the street preachers. Those guys were put on trial, and you remember the judge, or not the judge, the attorney that was against them said this, quoting the King James Bible, and specifically referring to Jesus' words, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Ought to be, It basically is a hate crime in modern Britain. The gospel is under attack. You think about our world is getting more and more against the truth and not letting the truth be heard. I mentioned on Thursday night, I'm walking out of my house this week, and the man just taking Christ's name in vain. And to them, Jesus is just a curse word. And again, the gospel under attack. Atheists, humanists, not just disbelieving, in Jesus and the Gospel, but they hate the Gospel. In our day, the Gospel is under attack. It's not an easy thing for us today to stand for the Gospel, but the thing is, God's called us to stand. He's called us to defend the Gospel. You know, Paul's defense of the Gospel meant imprisonment. Let me ask you, what does your defense of the gospel mean for you? See, for him to stand up and be counted for the gospel, it meant imprisonment. He knew he was going to prison. The Bible tells us in Acts chapter 20, verse 23, he was arrested in Jerusalem, okay, when he was sent to prison in Rome. But as he went to Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit everywhere was letting it be known that that was going to take place. The Bible says in Acts 20 verse 23 and 24, Paul said, the Holy ghost witnesses in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me, neither count on my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry, which I received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel. of the grace of God. Again, Paul's life is all about the gospel. He doesn't worry about the fact that if I stand for the gospel, I'm going to be put in prison. It doesn't matter. Because Paul had committed the ministry of the gospel. He says, neither count I my life dear unto myself. Do you count your life dear unto yourself? Or is the gospel dear to you? See, isn't that, when we talk about the primacy of the gospel, isn't it that something else is more important to me than the gospel, if the gospel doesn't have the primary place in my life? That there's other things that I count dear, that's too dear unto me, whether it's my time, my energy, my effort, my whatever, but something is there. If the gospel isn't a priority, what is it that I count dear unto myself? And so, Paul was a defender of the gospel. Is that important to you, to stand up for the gospel? And then the second part of that is to establish the gospel, to establish it. It says, in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. That word confirmation, it means to ratify or to establish. It's like we think about a peace treaty that's being signed. When it's ratified, it's signed by both sides, it's agreed to. And as believers, we have the privilege of taking God's peace treaty to mankind, saying, God offers you peace through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God will forgive you. God will be merciful to you. You don't have to stand at the judgment and be cast into a lake of fire. God is willing today to forgive you. And we get to stand and plead with men to sign the peace treaty. The Word of God speaks about it in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. It says, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. You know, is the Lord Jesus Christ physically here today? He's not. But you know, if he was, he would do so in a far superior way to myself. But if the Lord was here today, he would plead with men to get saved. He would be begging them to obey the Gospel before it's too late, before they stand at that judgment and be cast into the lake of fire. But I get the privilege, Christ isn't here, so it's my responsibility that I gotta go to that person and say, look, Christ died for you. He's willing to save you, that we plead with men, because we're confirming the Gospel. We're establishing it. And once they get saved, we further establish it as the Word of God speaks about in Acts 14.22, as Paul went along, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith. So if the gospel is not important to us today, think about it. The gospel has no defense and it has no establishment. And there's no fellowship. Do you see it? I mean, you stop and think about it. You take the gospel out of Christianity and you've got nothing. What do you have, morality? What's it about? You know, this morning, what God needs, God needs people to stand up and to fight for the gospel and defend the gospel because it's so important because those people can't be a part of the family of God without it. But the Gospel needs defense. The Gospel needs establishment and confirmation, and God's given that to us to do. Let me just speak about the Gospel as far as somebody receiving it one more time. You know, if I had to check for a million pounds, And I said, you know, this check is good. It's a million pounds and I want to give it to you. Is there somebody very kind, very loving that wants to give this to you? And all you have to do is take it and on the back you have to ratify it. You have to sign it and endorse it. What kind of person would look at that and say, I don't really believe that. They want to give that to me. What person would look at that and despise that? Oh, you know, who cares about the kindness of that person? And say it costs something great for that person to be able to do that, that they really sacrificed to give that opportunity. What kind of person would despise that and look at that check and say, forget it, I don't want that? Listen, as a messenger of the gospel, we take people a check and say, it's endorsed, it's already endorsed by God. God has signed it. You can have everlasting life. All you got to do is receive it. Just believe that the giver is good, that he's gracious, and that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin, that he died, that he rose again. Just sign it. What kind of person would reject that kind of offer that God has given. But that's our privilege to defend and confirm the gospel. And then the third point this morning, the primacy of the gospel. We're to suffer for the gospel. We're to suffer for the gospel. The sons of Zebedee, Matthew 20 verse 22, Jesus answered and said, As they asked, they said, we want to be the greatest in the kingdom of God and Jesus. So he says to them, you know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with? They say unto him, we are able. And he said unto them, you shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. What's the cup of the Lord Jesus Christ? If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. You know what it was? It was suffering, wasn't it? It was crucifixion. It was the sin of the world being placed upon Christ and His death and His separation from God and everything that He would bear in His body. Why? Because of the gospel. And they said to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we're able. Remember Peter said that. Peter said, if all men forsake me, yet not I. And what did the Lord say? Peter, before the cock crowed, thou shalt deny me thrice. But notice when these men say this, the Lord looks at them and says, you shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with. Where today are the people that will say to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, I'll die for you. Lord, even if it's my life. Lord, whatever it costs, Lord, I'm willing to give it for you. I had a young man in my Sunday school class in Georgia when Katie and I were in college. We were traveling to a church in Georgia, working there. And sadly, Chris was rebellious, and he was probably 11 years old. And you can make a case, he had a rough life. His mom passed away through a car accident when he was like five. And later on in his life, not at that point, his dad would commit suicide. And I mean, there was a lot of bitterness in the life of this kid, and we prayed for him, tried to reach him, but he was so rebellious, he was so disobedient, I mean, constantly disobedient. And I taught a lesson on the three Hebrew children, and I said to the kids as they're sitting at the table, I'm standing at the end of the table, I said, guys, would you ever do that for God? Say, I'm not gonna bow the knee to that old idol, I'll just go through the fire. And Chris, of course, and that was Chris, he's proud, you know, I'll do that. I said, Chris, I said, if you won't do the little things to obey God, you'll never do the big things. And see, today, if you don't do the little things for God, there's no way that you're gonna do the big things. But the reality is, if we're gonna stand for the gospel, it's gonna be a stand that's gonna, it's gonna be suffering. There's going to be a cost to standing. What are you willing to do for the Lord? There are two men that were Moravian missionaries. If you ever heard of Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionaries, I mean, they're incredible. The prayer life of this group was incredible. It wasn't a big group, but the amount of missionaries that they sent out and the way God used them was incredible. But there are two men in particular, Johan Dober and David Nichman that offered to go at great sacrifice because God had called them to take the gospel to African slaves on the Caribbean islands. And so what they offered, they said, we shall work as slaves among the slaves. But the official said, that's impossible. It will not be allowed. No white man ever works as a slave. Very well, replied Nishman. I'm a carpenter, and I will ply my trade. After some difficulty, the missionaries found support from the Danish queen or court, and they end up finally getting to the island. They're there for a couple years. After them, other missionaries come. They're there for 50 years. Many of these slaves got saved. But imagine that statement, right? We'll go as slaves. We'll go as slaves, we'll give up our freedom. Can you imagine what it would cost to actually do that if you desire to serve the Lord like that? We've got people that we pray for as a church, and if I just listed a few of them that you know that we prayed for, you think about the sacrifice that they're making right now as they stand for the Lord. Dan and Karen Haspin are good friends of mine in South Africa. Karen's mom passed away from a brain tumor maybe five months ago. Karen didn't go home. They had seen her mom just about six months or a year before, and they decided that they should stay on the field. Right now, Dan's mom is passing away. She's been in a coma, I think, since Saturday. And as far as I know, they're staying on the field. You know, you might think, well, whatever you think about why they do that or why they should do that, think about the sacrifice that sometimes it costs to take a stand for God and say, you know what, I'm just going to stand for the Lord. The gospel is so important. I'll leave my family. I'll move to another country. I'll be there in that country. And no matter how tough it is at home, I'm going to be obedient to God. Tim and Luda Smith, we talked about this past week, two weeks ago on Sunday morning, in their church that's in a Muslim country, the secret police knock on the door and demand entry and come in and tell them not to assemble anymore. You know what Tim and Luda are doing today? I know they are. They're having church. You know, the gospel costs, doesn't it? And Tim said to me, I emailed Tim. Tim emailed me back. But he said, I don't know how many more months we're going to be able to stay here. But they're not leaving because it's tough. Ben and Lauren Childs, I mean, look at Lauren. Lauren's almost died. She's had it so tough the last several years. She's fine when she goes back to the States, goes back to the field. She's got horrible health. She's a mom. She's homeschooling, got three kids. They've had to pray and say, God, if it doesn't get better, we might have to leave. But right now, they're faithful to God because the gospel's worth it. What about us? Romans 9.3, Paul said this, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ. You know, and he said, for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. I wish I could be damned. See, I don't begin to have the heart for God that I should have. I mean, Paul, his life is about the Gospel. He said, man, I'd like to be damned. I want to see these people get saved so much. I don't even care about my eternity, because I want to see them get saved. So, we look at this. We ought to suffer for the cause of Christ. So let me ask, do you worry about paying too much for the Gospel? Does that bother you? Are you worried this morning? You know, if I really get serious about serving God, if I really get involved in the gospel, that in our heart we'd say, you know, that's, it would cost too great of a price. It might cost me my career because ethics, I'd have to take a stand and say, no, I can't do that. It might cost your future. God, whatever you want me to do with my life, it may cost your country. If God called you into missions, it might cost your ambition. It might cost your family. And think about it. I mean, what is today, what is to create a price for us to pay to get somebody out of hell for all eternity? Can I really qualify that and say, well, you know, just if I really get serious about serving God, really get serious about the gospel, I'm going to have to give up some things. Listen, what is it that we say to God, God, I won't give that to you for the sake of the gospel. William Borden died early. He died, I think, around 22, somewhere in there. But in 1904, William Borden became the heir. He was the heir of the Borden Dairy Estate. He graduated from a Chicago high school as a millionaire, a millionaire back in 1904. His parents gave him a trip around the world, traveling through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and gave It gave a burden to Borden for the world's hurting people. Writing home, he said, I'm going to give my life to prepare for the mission field. When he made this decision, he wrote in the back of his Bible two words, no reserves. Turning down high paying job offers after graduation from Yale University, he entered two more words in his Bible, no retreats. Completing studies at Princeton Seminary, Borden sailed from China to work with Muslims, stopping first at Egypt for some preparation. While there, he was stricken with cerebral meningitis and died within a month. A waste, you say? Not in God's plan. In his Bible, underneath the words, no reserves and no retreats, he had written the words, no regrets. See, I believe this. The only regret somebody's going to have someday as they stand before the judgment seat of Christ is not that they gave too much for God. is that they didn't give as much as they ought to have for God. Can you imagine someday looking the Lord in the face and realizing how much more we could have done? You know, Paul gave up his liberty and said, in effect, to the Lord, Lord, you're worthy. Lord, you're worthy. What have you given up for the Lord and for suffering for the gospel? Then Paul cared not what happened to him, only that Christ was magnified. Paul cared not whether Christ was magnified by life or by death. Verse 20 and 21 says, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, soon also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Paul didn't care. I mean, we see that. He's in prison and he's going to prison. He goes, hey, I don't care. For me to live is Christ to die is gain. Whether it's by life or by death. As long as the gospel goes forth, that's what matters. As long as God is glorified in them. You know, this morning, if you're not suffering for Christ at some point, that according to the Word of God, there's a problem. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12, yea, and that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If I'm standing the way God wants me to stand for Him, the Bible says that I will suffer persecution. You might think, well, why am I not? Well, one, are you in Christ? Secondly, are you godly in Christ? All that will of godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I've been thinking a lot lately about the Greenfell Tower and the fire that took place. You think about the firemen and some of the accounts where that firemen are going up the stairs while other people are coming down. And as they're going up the stairs, at risk of their life, other people are coming down. But why are they going up the stairs? Because it's worth rescuing somebody from a fire. Today, as you think about it, what again is it worth doing to seek to save somebody from eternity in a lake of fire? It's worth suffering, isn't it? And so this morning, what position? has the position of primacy in your life. What is it that's most important? Again, without the gospel, we have no fellowship. Nobody comes into the family of God without the gospel. The gospel, without it being important to us, has no defenders or ratifiers. And as we take our stand for the Lord, we ought to expect to suffer for the gospel as well. May the Lord speak to our hearts this morning. Let's pray. Father, I praise you for the gospel. And Father, I'm just struck by the fact, as you read the book of Philippians, and actually as you read the New Testament, that the gospel is such a place of primacy and priority. And Father, I just pray this morning, it might be in our hearts, might be thinking, you know, what really is most important in my life? And Father, I pray that what those things are would be revealed to us. And Father, by your grace, that we check to see if it's worth living for that instead of living for the gospel. And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God give us grace to just refocus our lives on what is important. Father, it could be this morning that there's some here that in their heart they understand they're not a part of the family of God. They don't have the fellowship that you desire them to have with our church because They've never been born into the family. They've never been adopted into the family. And Father, I just pray the Spirit of God would speak to hearts. I pray, use your word this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's stand please as we sing.