The Good Life

[0:00] I'm turning your Bibles to the book of Philippians.

[0:20] ! And we're going to see over the next few months that the good life, according to what the Bible says, is much different than what the world says the good life is all about.

[0:40] And so my hope and my prayer is that through these weeks we will decide, if we haven't already, that Christ must be the center of our lives and not ourselves. And so if you would please stand with me as we read and honor God's word this morning.

[0:53] Just a couple of verses there. 1 Philippians 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:16] Please be seated. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or preposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be true.

[1:36] So a paradox is something that doesn't sound like it could be right, but upon further investigation you realize that it's actually true. Maybe you've heard the term less is more.

[1:50] That's an example of a paradox. Or you've maybe heard somebody say, I know one thing, that I know nothing. That would be another example of a paradox. Or that this is the beginning of the end.

[2:03] Another example of a paradox. And George Bernard Shaw is famous for one that he wrote and he said, What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.

[2:14] And so you have an idea of what a paradox is. And there are a lot of paradoxes in the Bible. For example, we see from Scripture that we are able to see unseen things.

[2:27] That's a paradox. The Bible also says that we conquer by yielding. The Bible says that we find rest under a yoke. It says that we reign by serving.

[2:39] It says that we are made great by becoming smaller, becoming less. The Bible says that we are exalted when we humble ourselves. That we become wise when we become fools for Christ.

[2:53] That we are made free by becoming servants. That we gain strength when we are weak. That we triumph through defeat.

[3:03] That we find victory by glorying in our infirmities. And that we live by dying.

[3:14] The greatest paradox in all of Scripture is the cross of Jesus Christ. Where one man's obedience, dying for the sins of many, resulted in the many being made righteous.

[3:33] As a result of that one man's death. Martin Luther developed something he called the theology of the cross. And as we've been going through our, or beginning our series in the evenings on Echoes of the Reformation, I've learned more about him.

[3:50] And I've been, I was very intrigued by this theology of the cross. In which he says that God is known by what is contrary. God is known by what is contrary. He is known in a hidden way.

[4:03] And he says that God is known through the message of the cross. Luther believed that the cross was the starting point to knowing God. If you want to know God, then the place to begin is on the cross.

[4:16] The cross of Jesus Christ. And that he said this starting point turns all other notions of God. And how he can be known upside down or right side up. If you want to know God, you will know him through looking at and examining the cross of his son, Jesus Christ.

[4:35] Because there are many paradoxes about the cross. Are there not? That there's glory in shame. That there's wisdom in folly. That there's power in weakness.

[4:49] That there's victory in defeat. That there's life in death. So it should come as no surprise to us that Scripture defines living the good life in a different way from the way the world defines what living the good life means or is about.

[5:06] Let's look at a couple of things that Jesus said. But first in John 10.10, Jesus says, The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

[5:18] So we see that Satan is the one who wants to take life away. But Jesus is the one who wants to give it. And not only does he want to give it, he wants to give it to us in an abundant way. And then in Matthew 10.39, it says, Whoever finds his life, Jesus says, will lose it.

[5:33] And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So again, we see that Jesus wants to give us this good life.

[5:44] But you must lose your life in order to find it. Are you confused yet? You must lose your life in order to find it.

[5:55] How does that make any sense? Well, it boils down to this, basically. That there are two different definitions of what it means to live the good life.

[6:09] Two different definitions. You have the world's definition of what it means to live the good life. And then you have the Bible's definition of what it means to live the good life. The world's definition of living the good life, again, basically boils down to this.

[6:23] It's self-centered. The world's definition of the good life is Christ-centered. The world's message is basically this.

[6:33] Do what makes you feel happy. If you don't like your job, then quit. If you don't like your spouse, then get a divorce. If you don't like your gender, then change it.

[6:47] If you want to spend money, then do whatever you need to do. Backstab your employees. Do whatever you've got to do to make more money so that you can spend more money. And they say, as a result of that, you'll be happier.

[6:59] And ultimately, they say, pursue your happiness, even if it means that in doing so, you will take joy from other people. We've seen this past week, if you've been following with me, what's been playing out in Hollywood with this whole ordeal with Harvey Weinstein.

[7:20] You know, here is an individual who was pursuing his own happiness. And as a result of that, he was ruining people's lives and leaving them in his wake. But this is what the world says.

[7:32] That's how you should live. This is what living the good life is about. And they're trying to seek to convince us. The world is that celebrities are the ones that we should be like, right?

[7:43] They seem to be the ones who are living the good lives, right? You go through the Walmart checkout and you see the tabloids and the magazines that they have there and all the headlines about what's going on in their lives as if these are the people that you want to be.

[7:58] So if you want to be like these people, then this is what you've got to do. Look, they've got houses. They've got cars. They've got anything that it seems like you could ever want in this world. Money, power, prestige.

[8:10] These are the people that our world is telling us to be like. But do they look happy to you? Do they look happy to you? Their marriages aren't able to last because they're so self-centered.

[8:21] They can't love somebody more or even equally to as much as they love themselves. They're continually checking themselves into rehab facilities because whatever they have accumulated for themselves in their self-centered lives has not been enough to give them a sense of fulfillment.

[8:38] And so we see from them, and you've probably experienced it yourself as have I, when you are the center of your universe, your life will lack meaning and purpose because you are a flawed human being just like me.

[8:54] And human beings make terrible gods. The Bible says that there is a much better way to live, and it requires you putting Christ at the center of your life instead of yourself.

[9:09] If you do that, the Bible says that your life will be joyful, that your life will be filled with meaning, that your life will be filled with purpose and peace. You will be able to agree with the Apostle Paul and understand what he says when he writes, to live is Christ, but to die is gain.

[9:28] He's saying this basically, to live for me means I need more Jesus. I'm getting more Jesus, but to die is gain because then I've got him completely.

[9:38] Philippians, this book that we're about to go through, is a paradoxical book because the overall theme of this book is joy in the Christian life.

[9:53] But here's the thing. The person who's the author of this epistle is writing about joy in a position where you didn't think that he'd have much to be joyful about.

[10:04] And the people that he's writing to don't seem like they also have much to be joyful about. But yet this book is filled with the theme of joy because they've tasted the good life, because they've made Christ the center of their lives.

[10:24] And no matter how difficult the circumstances are that they are facing, they are able to experience true and lasting joy. They've figured it out because Christ is at the center of their universe.

[10:40] The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote this epistle to the church at Philippi. And here is another paradox. He is writing this letter whose theme is joy while he's in prison.

[10:55] And if you've ever been to prison before, you know that there's not much joy taking place inside of a prison. And if you haven't been there, perhaps Tom Holland can arrange for you to take a visit.

[11:07] Prison is not a joyful place. But it's even more perplexing that he would write about joy when you consider the events that have led to his current situation.

[11:20] Let's take a quick review of Paul's life and circumstances following his conversion. The Bible says that immediately after he was converted, after he became a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, that Paul's bold, fearless proclamation of the gospel aroused the ire of the Jews of Damascus.

[11:39] And so they sought to kill him. And he was forced to flee the city by being lowered from the city wall in a basket. How humiliating. Later he was forced to flee in Conium.

[11:51] Was pelted with stones and left for dead at Lystra. Was beaten and thrown into jail at Philippi. Was forced to flee from Thessalonica after his preaching touched off a riot.

[12:04] Went from there to Berea, from where he was also forced to flee. He was then mocked and ridiculed by Greek philosophers in Athens. Was hauled before the Roman proconsul in Corinth.

[12:18] Was faced both there, was faced by Jewish opposition and rioting by the Gentiles at Ephesus. And then as he was about to sail from Greece to Palestine, a Jewish plot against his life forced him to change his travel plans, if you remember.

[12:34] And then on the way to Jerusalem, he met the Ephesian elders at Miletus and declared to them, Bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.

[12:52] And yet he still went. And when he got to Jerusalem, he was recognized in the temple by the Jews from Asia Minor. They savagely beat him by a frenzied mob and then saved him from, and then he was saved from certain death when the Roman soldiers, if you remember, arrived on the scene and arrested him.

[13:12] While Paul was in custody at Jerusalem, the Jews formed yet another plot against his life, which prompted the Roman commanders to send him under heavy guard to the governor at Caesarea. And it's not over yet.

[13:23] Yet, after his case dragged on without resolution for two years, Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen and he appealed to Caesar.

[13:34] And after an eventful trip, which included being shipwrecked in a violent storm, Paul finally arrived at Rome. And there he wrote the book of Philippians in his fourth year under Roman custody as a prisoner awaiting Emperor Nero's decision in his case.

[13:55] This man's been through quite an ordeal, has he not? You wouldn't think that this would be somebody in a place who would write anything about joy, and yet that's exactly what he's doing.

[14:07] Likewise, the Philippian church was not in such a great place either. They were one of the poorest churches. In fact, in 2 Corinthians, Paul writes about how astonished he was that it was the Philippians who were giving so generously.

[14:22] And not only that, but they had issues inside their own church that were taking place. They had attacks from without side of false teachers, and so they too are experiencing a lot of hardship. For a church, you wouldn't think that they would be recipients of a letter about joy.

[14:42] Yet despite the circumstances of both writer and recipient, joy permeates throughout all of Philippians. So much so that it's been called the epistle of joy.

[14:56] I want you to understand this. God wants you to experience the good life. He does. He wants you to experience the good life.

[15:07] And he's made it available to you to live. But the question becomes, how do we get there? How do we experience this life?

[15:18] And it boils down to this, basically, by living Christ-centered lives instead of self-centered lives. So let me define for you, as we talk about the good life through the next few months, what do I mean?

[15:29] Well, living the good life means living for Christ instead of yourself. Living for Christ instead of yourself. And in verses 1 and 2, Paul helps us understand what living the good life means, what it entails, and what it requires.

[15:46] And first we see that living the good life means you seek to serve God instead of seeking God to serve you. Verse 1, he identifies himself in Timothy, his protege, and he says that together they are servants of Christ.

[16:06] Servants, that word is interesting because it truly should be translated bond-servant. In the Greek, that is the word doulos, and it describes a person who is owned by someone else, and so is thus subservient or dependent upon that person.

[16:25] This was Paul's favorite term in using to describe himself. He often called himself a bond-servant. And when we see it in the New Testament, it's usually applied of believers in their relationship to Jesus Christ.

[16:40] A doulos describes a person who is willing, determined, and devoted to serve their Lord. But you've got to understand this. This is not forced servitude.

[16:51] Didn't we see that with Jesus when he went around and he was talking with people? And he would ask them to follow him? But he didn't go up to them and force them, right? You're coming.

[17:02] You're following me, whether you like it or not. You're going to be my bond-servant now. It doesn't work that way. This isn't forced servitude, but it's willing. Paul and Timothy viewed themselves as bond-servants, and they viewed it in a positive term.

[17:16] This can be hard for us to swallow, especially in the United States of America, right? Give me liberty or give me death, we say.

[17:31] And we take pride in being the land of the free and the home of the brave. And I've got to tell you that I'm with you when it comes to government, when it comes to how we run our nation, but when it comes to our relationship with Jesus Christ, that's not the way it works.

[17:52] Look at 1 Corinthians 6, 19-20 with me. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

[18:07] So glorify God in your body, and the price that you were bought with was the body of Jesus Christ, crucified, bleeding on the cross for you. You did not create yourself.

[18:19] Can anybody in here say that they made themselves? I can't. We don't have that ability. Only God does. You're not able to make yourself, and you're certainly not able to save yourself.

[18:30] That is only God's doing. And so this can become a difficult truth for us to swallow, because so many people would rather have it the other way.

[18:42] They'd rather exchange the truth for the lie. They would rather believe that they don't exist to serve God, but God exists to serve them. Don't we see this happening in churches all over our nation?

[18:55] This is the message that's being preached from behind the pulpit. God is so obsessed with you that he wants to serve you. If you would just speak the right words in a certain order, you can have him do whatever you want him to do, but it does not work that way.

[19:12] But this is what we want. We want every day to be a Friday. We want to live our best life now. I'll take that. I love Friday. It's my day off.

[19:25] But here's the thing. I think John MacArthur said it, and he's right. Based upon what the Bible says, if we're living our best life now, then that means our next life is going to be spent in hell.

[19:39] Philippians 3, 4 through 8. I want us to see Paul again. We'll get there eventually, but he says this. If anyone else, and he's speaking of himself, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

[19:52] Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Beneshamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless.

[20:05] But get this. 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 Jesus Christ my Lord.

[20:20] For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. What's he saying here?

[20:31] He's saying that, you know what, I spent a lot of my life self-centered. And I was using God to get what I wanted. I had the titles. I had the prestige.

[20:41] I had the power. But let me tell you, now that my life is Christ-centered, all of those things were worthless to me. And the only thing that's worth anything to me is knowing Christ more.

[20:53] Being more like him. But it means we must suffer the loss of ourselves at the center of our universe. Some time ago, I was back in college, and I was hanging out with some friends.

[21:08] And there was a pizza place in downtown Kansas City that we'd like to go to. Really good pizza. And, you know, I'm in college, so I'm poor. And so, you know, you make the sacrifices you need to in order to buy and afford a slice of pizza, right?

[21:23] And so we're going to this pizza place, and we sit down. And it's, I think it's a Friday or a Saturday, late at night. And it's a small little hole-in-the-wall place. So there's not many places to sit.

[21:34] But there was one homeless guy, and he was sitting in a booth by himself. And so we order the pizza, and we're all kind of annoyed, right? You know, this guy is only one person. But none of us is going to go over. And, you know, we're decent enough that we're not going to kick the homeless guy out of a place where we can sit, right?

[21:50] So we go, and we eat pizza. And I'm with some friends there. Some of them are believers. Some of them are on the fence, and some of them are not. And as we sit down, I see this homeless man over in the corner of my eye, and he's having a conversation with people who aren't there.

[22:07] He's turning and saying one thing to one person, turning the other way, saying something to another person, and looking in front of him. And he's just, he's addressing all these people in this booth that we can't see.

[22:19] He looks to be out of his mind. And so I sit down, and I have my pizza. And then I, you ever get the prompting of the Holy Spirit? And I felt the Holy Spirit.

[22:30] Now I'm hearing voices, right? Saying, give that guy your piece of pizza. What? You know, this is good pizza. I'm poor, and I'm hungry. But I felt the Holy Spirit putting it on my heart.

[22:44] Go, give that gentleman your pizza, and say something encouraging to him. So I did. And now most of my illustrations are self-deprecating, right? I'm not trying to lift myself up.

[22:56] I'm just a fool following Christ and listening to what his spirit says. And so I put my piece of pizza in front of this guy. I'm trying not to draw any attention. I put it down in front of him, and I say, stop listening to those voices and find a church where you can go.

[23:09] Something along that line. And this guy, this gentleman just snapped. Out of what it was ever was going on, it scared me. And he looked at me right in the eye. And he said, who are you?

[23:22] And then I told him, my name is Mike. And he said, where are you from? And I said, I'm from Shawnee, which isn't far away. Where did you go to high school? And I told him where I went to high school. He said, I went to that same high school. And so I was like, okay, now I've got to sit down.

[23:36] And so then I started talking to this guy, and we had this conversation. And I asked him, you know, are there any places you can get help here? Where are you going to church? You know, let me. I saw one, and I did.

[23:49] Try that place. Just get your life back in order. And then I went and sat with my friends, and they're all kind of, nobody's talking to me like, what was that about? You know? And then we left that place.

[24:01] And this homeless man, and it's cold outside, he, we were about halfway down the road, and he threw open the door, and he said, bless you, Mike Scrivani. God bless you.

[24:12] And then my friends were really like, well, that's really crazy. So what it led to, though, was an opportunity in the car ride home to share the gospel with one of our friends who was on the fence. And here's the thing.

[24:23] This is why I shared the story with you. Because, yeah, I went home hungry physically. But my spirit and my heart was full. That's what this is about.

[24:36] This is what it means when you're living your life in a Christ-centered way. You're doing what God has asked you to do, and you are blessed by that. You know? It is truly more blessed to give than receive.

[24:48] And that's what Paul's saying. You know, I have learned that when I'm living for myself, it ends up bringing me to a place where I'm miserable and I'm unhappy. But what I've learned is that when my life is about Christ and it's Christ-centered, and I'm doing what he's called me to do, even though I'm in chains, I have joy like I've never known before.

[25:10] And that can happen to you and I as well. But it means that we must undergo a suffering that requires us taking ourselves out of the center of our universe and putting Christ there in that place.

[25:26] Self-control. Denying yourself. Picking up your cross. Following Christ. We'll get more into that in the weeks to come. But the good life is experienced when you seek to serve God instead of seeking to serve yourself.

[25:39] We also see from this introduction that living the good life entails becoming a saint. Paul introduces himself and then he introduces really the Philippian church to who they are.

[25:53] You guys are saints. This included the overseers, which included the pastors and the elders, along with the deacons whose primary role in the church was to serve other members of the church.

[26:08] And so we see a little side note here that he lumps us all together, right? He's not saying to the saints who are the pastors and the elders and then the deacons and everybody else. He's lumping us all together.

[26:19] He's saying, you know what? And this is what we see. Yes, God has a way through his word that he needs his church to be organized so it can function well. But all of us, regardless of what title we have or position we have, I don't know, I'm not, God isn't more accessible to me as a pastor than he is to you.

[26:36] Praise God for that. We are all saints. All believers are saints. Saints in the Greek literally means a sacred or physically pure, morally blameless, or religiously ceremonially consecrated holy person.

[26:55] Do you think of yourself in that way? In the context of the New Testament passages, saints are those who belong to the body of Christ. They are those who, as we've sung this morning, are saved by grace through faith.

[27:10] It is a clear biblical truth that all of us who are saints are born again. But first, we're born into sin. All of us.

[27:21] We're born with a sin nature. Scripture says that God created humankind originally good and without this sin nature.

[27:33] But however, we see in Genesis 3, that man fell. Adam and Eve sinned. And with that fall, sin now entered into God's previously sinless creation.

[27:49] And when they had children, their sin nature was passed along to their offspring. Thus, every human being is born with this nature to sin.

[28:03] And if you don't believe that, I have a two-year-old who I love. I think she's beautiful. I think she's wonderful. She's got me wrapped around her little finger.

[28:15] But that child reminds me of the sin nature every single day. We are born with this nature to sin.

[28:26] So what can be done about it? Well, the Bible says that we must be born again. And that's what a saint is. They have been saints because they were born again.

[28:39] Romans 3.23 says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That all of us are in need of a spiritual rebirth, without which we will continue in our sinful state throughout eternity.

[28:50] But God, in His great mercy and in His great grace, has provided the only means for turning a sinner into a saint. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to give eternal life, His life, as a ransom for many.

[29:09] When we confess our need for a Savior, for our sin to be saved from our sin, and we accept His sacrifice on the cross, on our behalf, what He did for us, the Bible says that you and I become saints.

[29:22] We don't have to perform some kind of miraculous act. That at that moment, the Bible declares that we are saints, born again, covered in Christ's righteousness.

[29:36] You can't experience the good life apart from knowing Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's the truth. There are common graces, sure, that believers and unbelievers both get to participate in and share, but everlasting and foundational joy only comes through knowing Jesus Christ.

[30:01] You will constantly be trying to fill a pit in your heart that only the Holy Spirit can fill, and you will continually be enslaved to a heart bent towards sin if you're not a saint, a follower of Jesus Christ.

[30:19] And then we see that living the good life requires that you be in Christ. He says, This is interesting.

[30:31] You know, a Buddhist would never say that they are in Buddha. A Muslim never speaks about being in Muhammad. Mormons never speak about being in Joseph Smith.

[30:43] They may be faithfully following their teachings and living an example of their religious believers' past life, but they are never said to be in them.

[30:54] Only Christians claim to be in their Savior. Look at Ephesians 2, 4 through 6 with me.

[31:05] But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raises us up with him, and seats us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

[31:22] And then Galatians 2, 20, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Being in Christ means that you have been accepted by God.

[31:39] And what greater joy could there be in life than that? Let me elaborate a little bit more for you about what it means to be in Christ. As we've seen, it means that we have union with Christ.

[31:52] Have you ever gone up to somebody, and you wondered, you knew them kind of well, you've been introduced before, maybe you've had a conversation, but it's been some time, and there's somebody that you, you think highly of.

[32:08] And have you ever had that moment where you see them, and you want to go introduce yourself, but there's a part of you in the back of your mind that thinks, what if they've forgotten who I am? And then we've got to have this awkward conversation where I've got to jog their memory.

[32:23] And I think a lot of people view Jesus in that way. You know, I think we know each other. There was that whole time where I came forward in church, and I was baptized, but I don't know that if I go to him that he's going to remember who I am.

[32:40] But we see like the father and the prodigal son, what does he do? And he's there to embrace us. I know who you are. I love you. I'm happy to see you. I could never forget your name.

[32:52] And that's the way it is with us. When we have union with Christ, we have a Lord who knows us better than we know ourselves. Somebody who we can approach. Somebody who wants to have us approach them.

[33:04] Somebody that we have a relationship with who is unlike any other person in this world because it's the almighty, everlasting God that we know as a friend. That's amazing.

[33:16] We have union with Christ. And being in union with Christ, it means that we also have communion with God. What does it mean to be in Christ? Being in Christ means you have communion with God.

[33:27] You have fellowship with God. You have relationship with God. Being in Christ means you have received adoption as a child of God.

[33:41] That means that he'll never forsake you. He won't take away his salvation from you. You will always be his child.

[33:51] And with that, it means that you're also an heir with Christ. The things that he has awaiting you in his kingdom to come are amazing. And he's done it for you because he has adopted you through your position in Christ as his child.

[34:08] That feels good. Being in Christ means that you are also being transformed into his likeness. So it doesn't just end with your conversion.

[34:20] But then God in his mercy, he is making us more like his son. Preparing us more and more for that day when we will be with him forever.

[34:32] We talked about that last week. The process of sanctification. You are sanctified when you are saved. Right? You're made a saint. You have been clothed with Christ's righteousness. He has taken away your sin.

[34:43] But then we go through life. Yeah, we stumble and we make mistakes. We sin. But we're progressing towards Christ's likeness. It's amazing that God does this for us.

[34:53] He never gives up on us. Right? There's not going to be a point where he says, You know what? John, we'll just use John. I don't know if there's a John here. John, you were doing great. I brought you to salvation, but your sin has gotten to be too much, brother.

[35:11] So you're not saved anymore. You know, I'm kicking you out of the house, so to speak. God doesn't do that to us. That's amazing. Praise God that he doesn't do that to us.

[35:22] He will bring you back to himself. And he will make sure that you undergo that transformation. Eventually, the point where you will be in heaven and you will be glorified. Isn't that awesome? I've always wanted to dunk a basketball, and I'm looking forward to heaven for more than that reason.

[35:36] But I think in heaven, I got that glorified body. I ought to be able to out-dunk Michael Jordan there. Right? Right? But far greater things await us because of this transformation that we are undergoing and one day will be completely have undergone because of our union and being in Christ.

[35:52] And then fourthly, going into all of that, being in Christ means you have hope of glory. Hope of glory. What I just talked to you about. This world is a depressing place.

[36:08] And I couldn't imagine going through what we're experiencing as a society, as a culture, rumors of war, wars taking place, the consequences of sin, ripping families apart.

[36:23] What a hopeless place to live in if you didn't know that there is hope in Jesus Christ. Don't live for this world, but live for his kingdom to come.

[36:34] So then you are now identified with Christ as a result of your being in Christ. I saw this quote this morning I want to share with you from Timothy Keller.

[36:45] He says, Religion is this. My identity is built on being a good person. But gospel is this. My identity is not built on my record of my performance, but on Christ.

[37:00] On what he has done. And so I hope you see that this changes everything. It should change everything. When Christ is at the center of your universe, it changes everything.

[37:15] You know, you get to have a relationship with the almighty, everlasting God. He's given you his word. He's told you how you can live a life filled with joy. And yeah, it's not going to be what the world says, but listen again, I can tell you, look at the way the world is living, and you will see that there is a lot of joy lacking.

[37:35] Jesus Christ, because he loves you, is calling you to a life that is different. And yeah, it means that you're going to have to suffer the loss of yourself, but didn't he tell us?

[37:47] He who loses his life is the one who will find it. And I guarantee you this, that if you will seek to put Christ at the center of your life, you'll never, ever, ever regret it.

[38:03] You'll never, ever regret it, and you'll never regret it for all of time. But maybe you're here this morning, and you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior.

[38:13] You've been trying to live the good life, and maybe, like me, as you've experienced, yeah, there's momentary lapses of joy, and it lasts for a while, but then it's not enough.

[38:25] And you need something else to try to fill that hole that's in your heart, and I'm going to tell you, again, that you'll never find anything outside of the Holy Spirit, outside of God himself, to fill that spot in your life, because only he can fit.

[38:38] And you'll continue to be throwing things down into this bottomless pit, and you will be hopeless, and without joy, and if you don't receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will be without that hope forever.

[38:52] I'll see you next time.