LISTEN! If you have any of the following for free, would you rather have…

● Creme Brule or Tres Leches Cake?

● Visit Hawaii or Visit Martinque?

● Ski Aspen or Ski Vail

● Visit Paris or Visit Rome

● Alaskan Tour or African Safari”

● An Idaho Mountain Ranch or A World Class Country Club?

It is bitterly hard to choose between two very desirable things.

Paul is hard pressed from two different directions:

Door A: Live on in the Flesh

OK friends, we are today in Philippians 1:21-26, and I think Christian quoted this verse today and I thought bravo, this is where we are.

Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which to choose. Choose but I'm hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. Yet to remain

on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you. As for your progress and joy in the faith?

So that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you.”

Again, let me pray for His friends.

Thank you so much, Father, for this very good day, for your ongoing kindness to us. We pray for your rich blessing in this hour. We pray that you would be present with us, that we would be present to you, present to each other. We give grace and courage to each other. We pray your Spirit would help each one of us, beginning with me, to understand what you're saying, to adjust our lives, to be people who are obedient to you. Thank you so much for your word.

For your Son, for your spirit, and for this good day. And we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

LISTEN! If you have any of the following for free, would you rather have…

● Creme Brule or Tres Leches Cake?

● Visit Hawaii or Visit Martinque?

● Ski Aspen or Ski Vail

● Visit Paris or Visit Rome

● Alaskan Tour or African Safari”

● An Idaho Mountain Ranch or A World Class Country Club

I want to begin today by giving you some choices between some very good things, and they are all free to you, so don't worry about the expense. Just decide which one you want. But what if you got the ranch and you thought, oh man, I should have taken the Country Club? It's a difficult choice, and I'm raising that with you because Paul, in this paragraph. Was bitterly undecided about two great choices, two things that he thought were both excellent. Now he had a preference for one of them, but he thought the other one would be better for the Philippians. And so he's being offered these two amazing choices and it's a great struggle.

There are two great options in his mind. Now the great options we're going to explain today may not feel like great options in your mind. But in the mind of Paul, these were terrifically wonderful things. Here is his first great choice. It's a get out of jail door to continue in a very challenging ministry that has so far been bitterly difficult. That's his first choice, his story.

Let me read what he says to us in 2nd Corinthians 11:23 and 29. “I have been in far more laborers, far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. (24) Five times I received from the Jews, 39 lashes, 3 times I was beaten with Gods, once I was stoned (25) Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep. (26)I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. (27)I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (28) Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

(29) Who is weak without me being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? That's his first great option. Get out of jail and go back to shipwrecks and beatings.”

Option one,

Door 2 is death by execution. This is what Paul prefers. This book is written in about AD 62. He's arrested. He's under. He's under house arrest. Caesar is going to try him. We know from history. That he gets out, he gets freed, he goes on for another six years. But in AD 68, when he's in the same situation, Nero brings him out and cuts his head off. Paul is a Roman citizen. He cannot be crucified because he's a Roman citizen and therefore he must be executed. So executed, that is, by having his head cut off.

Here's his two options. Get out. Go back to the shipwrecks in the beatings and the beatings. Or get my head cut off. And Paul says these are great options. I love these options. I mean, we're not talking Creme Brulee and Tres Leche cake, but to Paul, they're amazing options. And part of what we have to say

to ourselves is what in the world, what in the world is going on in this man's heart and his mind that he believes this is his main insane?

Now in terms of the world he is thinking, he is certifiably insane. Certainly, he should be thinking about fame, health and wealth. He should be thinking about getting stuff, gathering it together, he should be thinking about happiness and joy and leisure. In terms of the world system, he's certifiably insane. But in terms of God's system, in terms of the next World, he is categorically not only sane, but he's also wise. He's an extremely wise man. Paul is a person who is operating in the mind of Christ. And he would love to go home. He would love

to go home. Go be with his father. The greatest rewards are always later on and Pauls looks for later on for the greater rewards. So let me give you a hint about what's inside of Paul that causes him to think this way. Jesus.

10 years ago, Kathy and I were in a car wreck. We're coming out of our subdivision in McKinney, TX. We were going about 15 miles an hour to the West. A car going 65 miles an hour hit the front of our Honda Pilot just in front of the front wheel, spun us around and sent us the other direction. 15 miles an hour this way, 4 seconds later, 65 miles an hour that way.

It was an abrupt and rude turn. I was holding a big cup of tea and we were both soaking wet. We were uninjured, but it was a rough 180° turn. And Paul had even a worse one than that, even a more stark 1A better one, but a more

stark one. He's going northeast to Damascus to kill Christians. He gets hit by a bright light and Jesus personally saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He becomes temporarily blind. And the next minute he's going northeast to Damascus to embrace Jesus and start sharing the gospel. His whole life is turned around. He had a 180° turn that he was not, that he did not see coming. He had a chance now to invite more people to respond to Christ instead of to say, if I find you knowing Christ, I'm going to kill you.

Big, big change in his heart and mind. When Paul got serious about Jesus, Jesus got serious about changing his life. And when I get serious about the pursuit of Jesus, he gets serious about changing my mind. My heart and my actions and my will and my energy. He makes stuff different for us. In a

In a nutshell, what got into Paul was Jesus. That's why he's thinking this way about these two great options. He's not a man with a death wish. He's a man with a Savior. And that has gripped his heart and his mind. He's a completely different person, one writer said. For Paul, life and death were a dilemma of blessings in Christ. The tug between life and death is a wonderful and entirely Christian dilemma. It's only us as believers who are tugged to heaven and tugged to earth. If you're not able, if you're not a believer, you're pretty well saying, no, I want to stay right here. I know what's going on here.

2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight. We have good courage. I say we prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” Therefore, we also have our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

Door A: Live on in the flesh.

● Fruitful labor for Paul

Here's Paul's first wonderful option. This is an appealing option to him. Verse 22, he said, “If I do that, there'll be more fruitful labor for me.” In Paul's writing, he uses a tremendous number of work, labor, energy, words, laboring and working and toiling. He's always talking about the hard work of the ministry and he's saying I would like to stay here and do some more real hard work because it will be fruitful. Seed good things happen. There's a very positive outcome when I work hard and I love seeing that you've done things that have been bitterly hard work and seen a great outcome and said that was worth it. I'm really happy about that. That is a great, great feeling. And that's where Paul was. If he stays alive, he can keep working. He can see more fruit. He's very happy.

● Necessary for the Philippians’ sake.

Verse 24, I want to stay here because it's necessary for the sake of the Philippians. The word necessary is a word that means a divine constraint has been laid on him. This is not a light word. This doesn't mean I should go mow the lawn before it gets too hot. That's a very light constraint.

Paul's constraint is I need because of the spiritual well-being of people whom God rescued, I have to work. It's a divine constraint. It's a heavy burden on him. People's futures, people's spiritual growth are to some degree resting on my diligence.

● Continue with believers for their progress in the faith.

And he's saying, I've got to be about this, verse 25. “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with I can continue with the believers for their progress in the faith. As I said last week, the word progress is a word that means a ship making headway despite contrary winds. They're going forward despite the blows that keep coming against them. And Paul says I want to stay here to see you go forward. What is more fulfilling than walking with a person who's making spiritual progress, they're moving toward Christ.

● Continue with believers for their joy in the faith.

What a joy. Paul says, “I want to be a part of that.: So 2 questions, 2 applications. Am I personally, are you personally making headway, spiritual

progress despite the headwinds #2. Am I personally, are you personally helping other people make progress despite the headwinds in their lives?

One of the great blessings in our lives is that we can help people make progress. We can give them the gospel. We can say to them, here's the basic message, bad news, you've sinned against the God of the universe. It causes you to be separated from him. You're spiritually dead. There's nothing you can do and then say, but there is good news. God seeing us and our helplessness said, I'll do something. I'll send my son to pay for your sin on the cross. And then there's the invitation. Would you put your trust in Christ? Stop trusting in other things and put your trust in Christ. It's a joy to give that message to people. It's a joy if you've ever sat 3 feet from someone when they trusted Christ. It's like Turkish delight. You'll do anything to get some more. I want to see this again.

Friends. I was a student at the University of Arizona 200 years ago. A long time ago. I'm sitting on a bench waiting for class to start. A student sits down next to me. I know for a fact he was with Campus Crusade for Christ at that time. Crue now because of what I know now and what he said to me. And he said to me, “If you died today and stood before God, and he said, why should I let you into heaven? What would you tell him? I gave him the most beautiful, tight 5 minute works answer that anyone has ever given. “I go to church, I'm baptized, I teach Sunday school. I'm a lay reader. I'm the only teenager in the nation who's tithing. I'm the president of our youth group.”

I mean, I had a tight works answer. And then he took about 5 minutes with the Bible to destroy it. And then the bell rang and he had to leave. And so here I am with the bad news. I had to go searching to find the good news, but he did me a huge service. Because he told me that what I was trusting in was worthless. We got to do that with people. We also got to walk with people to help them after they've responded to Christ, talk to them about stuff going on, encourage them when they're getting weary and when they're thinking about checking out or turning away. We get to walk with them and help them. It's a terrific joy.

Friends, When Kathy and I was newly married, we had a six year old profoundly handicapped foster child and then about two years later we had our own infant child and we're making no money and we're living in a duplex and we were brand new Christians and we are struggling. My job required me to travel. This girl, this beautiful child named Tammy, was so heavy, Kathy couldn't get her in and out of the bathtub. We were struggling and next door to us was a couple named Jerry and Ella Mae.

Who knew Christ, who loved Christ, who served Christ, and who walked with us in crazy ways for three years. Jerry's gone to live with Jesus. Ella Mae is still alive. God willing to see her next month in Missoula. But those two people helped Dave and Kathy Gibson in their progress in the faith, and it was a joy for them. It was a great gift to us. We get to do that with other people.

Verse 25 Paul says I can continue with believers for their joy in the faith.

I can help them experience more of the deep inner happiness that comes from being immersed in grace.

● Bolster their confidence in Paul by coming to them again.

● To Live is Christ

I can bolster their confidence in Paul by coming to them again. He's not so much saying boastful their confidence in him, but by his coming he can bolster their confidence in Christ.

Paul's arrival in Philippi could have been after his imprisonment a very powerful and positive impact and he wouldn't go there to say, hey, I want you to think more about me.

He wouldn't say Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain and then say when I get there, I want to get some more glory. It's not exactly the mindset of this man.

He says to live is Christ. His personal reason for existence is Jesus Christ.

When he's my reason for existence, I think about him, I speak to him, I talk about him, I learn about him, I read his book, I read what other people say about him. I'm pursuing Jesus.

One of the things we have to say is, where's my energy going? It's called an energy audit. Where does the energy of my life go? Is it pointed primarily in some direction, or is it pointed at the Lord? Jesus is my energy on getting ahead. Getting a girlfriend, getting a boyfriend, getting a bigger house, getting a pool, getting a job, getting known, getting more money.

What am I trying to get? Paul's energy was directed toward Jesus Christ, the divine person of the Son, “For to me to live is Christ”, he said.

Door B: Depart and be with Christ.

● Paul would rather depart this world–this is his deep desire.

That is the door to depart and be with Christ. He said he's hard pressed. It's a word that means to be straight, to be distressed, to be tormented, to be pressed hard from every side. He's in a quandary. Golf Club or Ranch Trace Lake Chase or Creme Brulee? He's pressed both ways.

Go back to shipwrecks and stonings or get beheaded. He's pressed, he has a personal preference and frankly his personal preference is door B get beheaded. That's what he would rather do. But he thinks because of the Philippians, I should take Door B and keep helping them. He's hard pressed.

He's pulled hard. He's like a man with a rope on each arm and a, you know, an NFL lineman on the end of each rope and just pulling you that way. And he's in that kind of a quandary in his life. Verse 25, he said, “He'd rather depart this world.” He has a deep desire to do that. The word means desire, craving, longing. He is aching to go to heaven. A man named Headley Moore said the dying hour is to Paul the mere gateway into the large room of the Presence of Christ. If he could die, he would go into this large room where Jesus is. He'd be with Christ. He'd be free from sin. He'd be without struggles. No more stonings, no more beatings, no more shipwrecks. It would be glorious for him to be in the presence of Christ.

● He'd rather live in the presence of Christ. Second Corinthians 5:8, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

A nanosecond after death, I'm with the Lord Jesus. However, I go out if I go out in the 2028 month chemotherapy route or if I go out and get hit by a bus route. However, I go out on my brother-in-law's route which was to take a nap on the couch and wake up in heaven which is my preferred route but I don't know where you sign up for that.

However, I go out. A nanosecond later, I'm in the presence of the Lord Jesus and Paul says. “I'd be very happy to go out. It's very much better for me to depart. (vs.23)

The word technically means untie to lose. But it's used many, many times

for the idea of breaking camp. Breaking camp and moving to a new place. It's used in Acts 16 for a prisoner who's released from jail. It's used later on in Mark 12 for the guests departing from a banquet. And Paul's idea is, I want to break camp on earth. I want to go to heaven and set up camp in eternity.

That's where I would like to be. That's what's going on in his heart. Why does he think this? Because his whole life is immersed in Jesus. His whole motivation is the Lord Jesus, Paul says in First Timothy 1:1, “He was the worst Sinner whoever lived.” Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit recording the Bible forever, Paul said, “I am the foremost sinner, whoever lived.” Now you're thinking to yourself as I think, OK, well, I know some people who I think should be above all. I won't go into any categories, but Paul says I was killing Christians. I was fighting against Jesus himself. I'm the worst Sinner, whoever lived, and yet God rescued me. And I have so much to gain by going.

To live with Christ, here's what we have to gain, friends. Presence of Christ.

Freedom from the punishment of sin. Freedom from the ability to sin, freedom from the consequences of sin. Freedom from other people's sin. Freedom from any level of separation from God, not even the presence of sin. No more suffering, tears, pain, alienation, engrossed in heart level adoration of God.

Heart level adoration of this incredible being. Engrossed in deep friendship,

fellowship with perfect people. Engrossed in service, doing what we're good at for the glory of God and for the benefit of others.

Three main activities of heaven worship, fellowship and service. We will be doing stuff we're really, really good at. We'll be swimming in beauty, truth and goodness. We will be awash in joy. We can't even imagine it. We can't even think about it. It's going home. Paul's heart is I want to go home. Everybody has woven in their heart. I want to go home.

My dad lived for 34 years in a nice house on 10 acres in the Bitterroot Valley. As adults, we would go there for about a week on the 4th of July. The whole family gathered, kids and grandkids, and we would shoot rifles and shoot fireworks and we would make long water slides down the hill and we would have water fights that were so fun. Everybody in the family. Grandkids would be laughing so hard they couldn't compose themselves to throw their water balloon. They're just shaking and standing there with their water balloons. We would sit at the fire at night and watch the sparks go up and the stars and tell the stories about our horrible childhood camping trips. It was glorious. It was great fun. But the best thing about it was my dad was there.

And that's what Paul is saying. The best thing about it is my father is there, my savior is there. It's a great place to be. It is a wonderful place, but it's a place of unimaginable things and the best thing is my father is there.

Here is the closing idea, please, friends. For me as an individual believer, it is

far better to die and be with Christ. But sometimes, for the sake of those around me, it is better to live on and to keep ministering.

We have two great options. We could die, we could go home, take a nap

this afternoon, wake up in heaven. That's a great option. Or we could go about our life for days, weeks, years, decades and minister to other people.

It's two great options when you know Christ. Everything is a great option when you know Christ. You're just hard pressed all the time. Because God is giving us these incredible, great options here.

Challenge please memorize Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Very short. “For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain.”

Here is what I want, friends, what I personally want. I want to love Jesus more like Paul. I want to love other people more like Paul did, and I want to love the appearing of Jesus more like Paul did.

What do you want? What do you want?

“For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain.”

Let me pray for us. We're so thankful, Father, for this paragraph and for this man. Who loved you so much? Who wrote this book? Who instructed us?

Through your Holy Spirit, I pray for each one of us that we could move closer today. Closer to say, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. We entrust ourselves to you and trust this body of believers to you. We need your help as we think about this pastoral candidate coming. We need your guidance in that.

We need your help Father, as we have so many opportunities for ministry around us inside this body and beyond these walls we want to be honoring for you. We want to tell more people about you. We want to encourage others and help them walk closer to you. We're so thankful for who you are, for the kindness you show to us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.