your Bibles to the book of 1st Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 31 1st Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 31 and then also find Philippians chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 Philippians 1 20 and 21 1st Corinthians 10 31 Philippians 1 20 and 21 Let me, before we get into the message, first of all, say it is good. We have several more back with us today, and that's good to see each one of you, and so happy that you could join us today, and felt like you could join us today, and this has been crazy times, crazy times. This morning, the title of the message is The Christian Glorifying God, by his death. Now this has no special connection to all this thing that's going on around us. In fact, about nine weeks ago, I would have preached this message, because 10 weeks ago was our last time together before we stopped meeting for a time, when all this COVID-19 thing hit. And what I had done at that point, we had been preaching through Mark, and we were in chapter 10 of Mark, if you remember, and I'd preached several messages on marriage and divorce, And then I followed that with a couple of messages tying back to the fifth Saturday that we'd had back in February. At that fifth Saturday, the topics were the Christian glorifying God by his life and the Christian glorifying God by his death. Brother Steve Raines was supposed to have preached the one on death, but he was sick at the time, if you remember. By the way, Brother Raines sends his greetings, and he is doing much better. He's lost 40 pounds. His sugar and his blood pressure are all looking good, and I think he's getting his strength back and everything, and he's getting fired up about the possibility of church camp. He's excited about that, but he sends his greetings. But at that time he was sick, so I filled in and preached that message. And the whole topic was, I thought, a very good one. And it really kind of tied into what, in a way, to what I was preparing to preach on marriage and divorce, particularly marriage. Because marriage represents, the reason it's so special, and we should hold it in high regard, and from a Christian viewpoint is because it represents the relationship between Christ and his church. And so from there we talked about the Christian glorifying God with their lives. The three points of that message were God, actually it took me two Sundays to preach this, but God created us for his own glory. This gives purpose to the life of the Christian. And third, obedience is the key to glorifying God with your life. And then, in part because it had been requested and because I felt like it fit in with where we were at at that point in time, my initial plan, or the plan was that next Sunday, the one that we first canceled, I was going to preach on the Christian glorifying God, but by his death. So that's what we're going to do this morning. And should I get through all of this message, which I'm not saying one way or the other, because it seems the last several I've done, there's always been one more and one more. I haven't quite gotten through everything in one, let alone two or three even, in some cases, messages. If we should get done with this message this Sunday next, we will follow them by resuming our study in Mark's gospel. where we left off in chapter 10. So that just kind of lets you know where we're headed. For this morning, I want us to talk about how we might glorify God with our deaths. Again, this is not meant and was intended to be preached before the COVID-19 thing really kind of blew up on us. So it's not meant to be connected to that. What it is meant to do is make sure that we understand that we have a responsibility to glorify God not only with our lives that we live day to day on this earth, but also then with our deaths. And I want to try to bring that out from scripture and look at some examples of those who have done so. So let's read our text now. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 says, whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And everything we do, whatever it may be, our pursuits in life should be to the end of glorifying God with our lives, but also with our deaths. That includes dying. Philippians now, the passage there, chapter one, verse 20, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Let's have a word of prayer, and I'm gonna say a few thoughts on that, and then we're gonna go enter into the points for today. for a message today. Let's pray. Our God and most gracious heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time indeed that we have here together this morning. I thank you, Lord, for your watch care over us, your protection, Lord. We ask now, Lord, that you would receive our worship that we have offered up to you here this morning and continue to do so. And we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would open our minds so that we can understand your word and that we might be strengthened, Lord, in your word, and especially as it regards how we might die and how that should bring glory to you. Lord, I just pray these things all in Jesus' name, amen. So back to the passage there in Philippians real briefly, one thing we need to remember, when you read Philippians, it is one of the most positive books in the scriptures. And that's even more amazing, I think, because if you should consider who wrote it and where he was when he wrote it, the person who wrote it was the Apostle Paul. And he had lived a very difficult and hard life. Many would have become bitter at the life that it was his lot to live, but he had not, as we see here in Philippians. And also you need to understand at this present time he writes the book, he's in prison. for preaching the gospel. And so, yet he gives to us some very encouraging words throughout the book. And in this, he points out that, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, this is a man in prison again, a man who had experienced a lot of difficulties in his life, a lot of persecution, a lot of trouble. Yet here he is with earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed. He wasn't ashamed to be in prison because he was there for preaching the gospel of Christ. And there are those who are ashamed when they feel like they're forced to take a stand for Christ, and we shouldn't be ashamed of that. We should stand boldly and surely when we do so. But he also says, now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Paul had hopes. He had hopes to return to certain places that he had already been, to visit with churches and people that he had ministered to before. He had hopes of taking the gospel to even new places. such as Spain. It was part of his plan to someday go to Spain and carry the gospel. So he had hopes and expectations, and he wanted to glorify God with his life, but also he was prepared that, and that could mean any time, it might be his death. that he hoped would bring glory to God, to Christ. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Both are good. Now, again, our topic is death. And for us, death is a scary thing. Death is a dark and depressing kind of thing that we really probably don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about. And don't, unless we have to, because someone near us may be dying, or have died, or maybe health reasons. We feel like we might be close, but again, death for us is that kind of a thing. But for the Christian, it shouldn't be. You see, death for the Christian is a transition. So many today see it as an end. and see it as, think that all life just stops when a person dies, and that's it for them. But that's not so, especially for the believer. For the believer, we have the hope of glory. We have the hope of eternal life in Christ Jesus. And so for us, we need to see death not as a major stopping point, but merely is the next step is a transition point. I've told you before and told others before we ought to do it like a door like say those doors back there that we go through we cannot see clearly we have 2 little windows back there that I can look through. And from my viewpoint right here, but I can't see much on the other side of those two doors. And that's the same way for the Christian. We've been given some little windows to look into from the scriptures to tell us a little bit about what heaven's like and what that eternal life's going to be like. But a lot of it's very unclear for us and uncertain because we can't see it. and have not really experienced it, obviously, then we can develop fears and we can develop worries about what that's gonna be like. But I'm telling you, according to the scriptures, that we ought to see that as a doorway that someday is gonna open up. for each one of us, unless the Lord comes back first, and then it'll be kind of different. But every one of us is going to experience this thing called death. And that doorway is going to open for us, and we're going to go through that doorway. One thing I believe is that we will be met and ushered into glory. We won't walk there all by ourselves in the same way we haven't walked through this life by ourselves, if you're a believer. The Lord is with us, his spirit is with us, he will guide us into what he has prepared for us on the other side of that doorway called death. So we should have a more hopeful understanding of death, certainly, than the world around us. Death is something that people often are concerned with. I want to read one more passage, actually, before we go into our points. Turn to John's Gospel now, John chapter 21. Gospel of John, chapter 21, verses 18 and 19. This passage comes on the end of an encounter, a meeting, if you will, that Jesus has with Peter following the crucifixion of Christ, following his resurrection during that 40 days that he was on this earth. And it is at one of these times that our Lord draws Peter aside and begins to ask him some questions. Really one question. Peter, do you love me? Now, at the time, we know, if you read, we understand that Peter had just denied Christ three times the night of the crucifixion. And that hurt Peter very deeply. And I think Peter was, you know, in a very, not a good place emotionally. He was really struggling with this. I'm sure he had a lot of guilt over this, as you can well imagine. And Jesus asked him three times then, Peter, Do you love me now? That's a study in and of itself all of of what they cover there and the point of it all was to basically restore Peter You might even say it was another conversion for Peter, not his first conversion that we have when we're born again. I believe we experience conversions throughout our lives where we have sinned and we get away from the Lord and then we repent and we come back to the Lord. That's a conversion in a sense. And this was that for Peter. This is a time for Peter to be restored to that relationship that he had with the Lord, that he had caused to not be what it should be, that Peter had caused it to be what it shouldn't be because of his sin. And we do that. We experience that a lot in our lives. And so the Lord is restoring Peter here, and after he says that, Verse 18, I wanna read verses 18 and 19. And Jesus says this then to Peter. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not, this spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me. So what Jesus is telling Peter is when you're young, you dressed yourself and you went wherever you wanted to. But there will come a time when you're going to get older and someone else is going to do this for you. Now there are some who think that the dressing here, the girding here, is that of the mode of Peter's death. And what we know about Peter was he was crucified. But according to church tradition in history, what we know is Peter requested that he be crucified upside down because he wasn't worthy to be crucified in the same way that Jesus had been. But that's how he was martyred, that's how he died. And basically, the Lord is telling him, you're gonna live, you're gonna be older, and there will come that point where you're gonna go where you would not. We don't choose, really, to die. That's something we experience. Now, suicide is an exception to that, of course, and that's its own separate topic again. But basically, for most of us, we're not gonna choose our death as such, but it will happen. And our Lord is telling Peter that and telling him a little bit about how it would happen, okay? And that leads me into what I really wanna talk about for today. this message and that is how it is we can live our lives to that point where we die and both the life that we have lived and the death that we experience brings honor and glory to Christ our Savior. So let me lead into lead up to death Well, this is gonna be two messages I can see already. Let me lead up to that with the first point. This is our first point. The Christian experience is to be one of sacrifice. The Christian experience is to be one of sacrifice. Now, this goes contrary to the wisdom of this world. And it's even contrary to a lot of modern day preaching. But the scriptures are very clear on this matter. Christians will experience suffering over the course of their lives. Suffering related to the fact that they are Christians. Related to the fact that they worship the one true God. Related to the fact that we are following and should be attempting to follow in every way we can our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The world hates Jesus. Because the world hates Jesus, the world is gonna hate those who follow Jesus. and who practice the teachings of Jesus. And that's gonna necessarily bring suffering into our lives. In fact, this is going on in many places in the world, around the world today, in our day and time right now. We hear reports from certain missionaries in certain places of the difficulties. With the distraction of this COVID-19, what you don't read a lot about is the fact that right now, China, over these last several weeks, China has really been cracking down on Christians, burning down churches, and trying to wipe out Christianity in China. And in the rest the world's distracted by all this other that's going on and that's one of the things that China's doing It's not just China India and other places Muslim lands We know all of this is going on and we have brothers and sisters in Christ Who are part of the kingdom of God who are suffering and even dying because they are Christians now in America we haven't experienced very much of this and I think gradually it has been increasing. over the last several years. I think at present we have seen evidence of this in certain places in certain states where it seems like one of the things that certain governors have tried to do is stop Christians from meeting just based on actions and based on the actions of local authorities. We've seen churches who tried to meet in parking lots who were given tickets or arrested because of that and other things. And there's a lot of things we could get into there. So we're starting, I think, beginning to see a little bit more of this in our time. But we really have been spared a lot of persecution. And I think many, I think oftentimes, in fact, I've heard this in prayers where people thank the Lord that we don't see the persecution that we see in other places. But I'm gonna be honest with you here. I have often and long wondered if that's really a blessing, to be spared from persecution, that is. Persecution has a way of bringing folks closer to the Lord. okay, and certainly has a way of providing opportunities to bring glory to the name of the Lord. and we should see it as such. Any difficulty in our life, we ought to see as opportunities to learn something about God and our relationship with God, but also opportunities to serve the Lord. And I've said a few times over the course of these last several weeks in the midst of this crisis we've been undergoing, that we ought to see this as an opportunity to really serve the Lord well, to really do things that bring attention to Christ during this time, to do things that really strengthen our witness to those around us, and that should be our focus. We should be for instance demonstrating great faith. We should be demonstrating trust. We should be demonstrating Confident assurance not that we're not going to get the disease or that we are whatever But that no matter what happens we trust God we believe in God now yes, we do have personal decisions to make and I've told everyone this and everybody sees this whole thing a little bit differently and we need to be understanding of that and and respectful towards one another in this regard, but we need to understand no matter where we stand on this issue, it is an opportunity to serve God and bring glory to God, okay? And that should be what's driving our decisions. That should be what's motivating us to get out, or in some cases, stay home, but to do whatever we do for the honor and glory of the Lord. Has it been difficult? Yes, it has. A lot of things have been difficult, but let's trust the Lord, and he will see us through this difficulty. Not meaning he removes the difficulty, he sees us through it. So how can that Christian experience be one of sacrifice? Well, first of all, we have a daily responsibility to present our bodies as living sacrifices. And this will lead us right up to the time of our deaths. Turn to Romans chapter 12, and we're gonna read the first two verses there. Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. A daily responsibility to present our bodies as living sacrifices. Romans chapter 12, verses one and two, verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now, this ought to be a very familiar passage to you, okay? If you've been a Christian for very long at all, you've heard this passage before. But I just point out, as it often is when this is read, we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. In the Old Testament, what kind of sacrifices were presented in the worship of God? Dead ones, okay? animals or even grain that had been harvested, but dead, okay? And truly we know it's, you know, we find forgiveness and remission of our sins in the shedding of blood. We know this. But once that's happened for us, and by the way, for believers, it's happened. Jesus has made that sacrifice. He has shed that blood. He has died for us. So what that means for us is now we are to offer living sacrifices. We don't have to die. that our very lives that we live are to be a sacrifice, are to be a way of giving back to God, a way of worshiping God, a way of recognizing the sovereignty of God. And he beseeches us on this, Paul does in his letter to the Romans, verse two, and be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That living sacrifice we're offering ought to result in improving the good, the acceptable and perfect will of God. That should be the end result of it. Some people will make sacrifices and they will be quick to tell you about their sacrifices in order to bring attention to themselves. That's not what this is telling us to do. We are to make these sacrifices in order to draw attention to Christ, our Savior. And then in Mark chapter eight, verses 34 through 38, we have read this previously not so long ago in our study of Mark. But Jesus, in this passage, says these words. And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall I profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words and this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels. Now, in perspective to what we are talking about here this morning, there are things about our lives that we will lose we truly follow Christ those so there are some things we're gonna try to hang on to and we're gonna lose them because they're of this world and they're not spiritual things therefore they're not eternal things and they will pass away Those things that are spiritual, those things that are of God, those are the things we need to hang on to. Those are the things we need to grab on to. Those are the things that we need to follow after because they are eternal and therefore of great value. So we need to make sure we understand that we have this daily responsibility to present our bodies as living sacrifices right up until the point of our death. We're going to stop there and we will resume this next Lord's Day if the Lord is willing. And we come together again and we will talk more about what it means to build up to, lead up to, and then experience death in a way that brings honor and glory to Christ. Let's bow our heads for prayer at this time. and then we'll have a song. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, oh Lord, we just thank you, Lord, for your words that you give to us and the direction that we find in your word, oh Lord. And I just pray that you would take these things, these words of yours, and write them upon our hearts. And Lord, that they might change us and that we might be different, that we might live a different life than we would have. because we are yours and because we do want to present our bodies as living sacrifices. Lord, give us strength and grace to do these things. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.