Hello, and welcome to this
message from Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque. We pray this message
impacts you, and if it does, we'd love to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/give. What words would you
use to describe what you want your future to look like? There are four
that come straight out of Paul's experience. Joy, confidence, hope, and life. In this message, "Can
You Predict Your Future?" Skip explains how
these four words sum up what Paul expected
his future to include. Now please turn in your
Bibles to Philippians Chapter 1 as he begins. So a golfer went to
a fortune teller. And the golfer said,
I have one question. Will there be golf
courses in heaven? Fortune teller said,
well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. He goes OK, give
me the good news. She said, the good
news is, in heaven the golf courses are so
beautiful, so magnificent, they are beyond human imagination. And he said, well,
how could there be any bad news with that? She said, well, the
bad news is, you have a game booked to start
at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Predicting the future has been a
favorite pastime for millennia. Way back in antiquity,
diviners, priests would use all sorts of
methods that they said was able to read the future. So they would look at clouds,
, the way they were dispersed in the sky and they would
say that means such and such. Or they would look at
the way stars appeared in the sky and the galaxies,
or drops of oil in water forming different patterns. Some even used the trails of
animals, if you can imagine, putting an organ, like
a liver, on a plate. And the way it would wiggle
and wobble, they would be able, they said, to
predict the future. And its people's desire
to know the future that makes horoscopes still
popular, or fortune tellers popular, or palm
readers, or psychics, or weather men. We want to know what is
coming in the future. Now all of those things
are forbidden by scripture, except perhaps for weathermen. But the reason they're forbidden
in the scripture is simple. They're fake. They don't work. They're calling on nothing
to predict the future that they don't know. It's just making a guess. Only God knows the
future, and only God can predict the future. And we have looked at the
great series, Against All Odds, of how God has
fulfilled prophecy. But did you know that you
can predict your future? You can predict your future. You can't predict
future circumstances, but you can predict
future responses. I want you to see
how Paul does it. In Philippians Chapter
1, I'm going to take you back up to Verse 18. He says, what then? Only that in every place,
whether in pretense or truth, Christ is preached;
and in this I rejoice. Now look at what he
does with the future. Yes, and I will
rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my
deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the
spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my
earnest expectation and hope that in nothing
I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness,
as always so now also Christ will be magnified
in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain. Up to this point in Paul's
letter to the Philippian church, he has been looking
at past tense events. For example, in Verse 3,
Paul says, I thank God upon every remembrance of you. That's past tense. In Verse 5 he is thankful for
their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And in Verse 12,
he says, I want you to know the things that
have happened to me have happened for the
furtherance of the gospel. All of these are past
tense experiences. Paul is in jail. He is writing to the
Philippians about what happened to him in the
past and what is happening to him in the present. Now he pivots and he
looks to the future. And notice the words, for
instance, in Verse 18. Yes, I will rejoice
that future verse 19 for I know that
this will turn out verse 20 he says that nothing
I shall be ashamed also in verse 20. So now Christ will be
magnified Paul is now predicting the future Now the truth is, the future
was uncertain for Paul. He did not know which way
the winds of Roman justice would be blowing for him. He knew that he
would stand trial. That was sure. But he doesn't know
what's going to happen in the circumstances
of life, yet he makes predictions
about his responses to those circumstances. And I'll give you four
words that sum it up. He predicts joy, he predicts
confidence, he predicts hope, he predicts life. It's pretty good future, right? Those four things he predicts. You, if you are a
follower of Christ, you can predict your future. You can predict what your
future responses will be. It's like that old Dale Carnegie
saying you probably heard. Two men looked out
from prison bars. On saw the mud, the
other saw stars. So here's Paul the Apostle,
looking out literally from prison bars in Rome. He doesn't see mud. He sees stars. And he sees four
stars, to be exact. He sees the star of joy,
the star of confidence, the star of hope,
and the star of life. We're going to be looking
at each one of those today. Abraham Lincoln once said, the
best thing about the future is that it only comes
one day at a time. Well, that's good news, but
it will come nonetheless. Your future is coming. What will it be like? I love what Corrie
ten Boom used to say. She said, even though we
don't know the future, we don't know what
the future will hold, we know who holds the future. Because of that,
there are four stars that you can see out
from whatever prison you might find yourself in. Let's consider the first. Joy is the first. In Verse 18, the
last part of it, notice he says yes,
and will rejoice. Now let me just
tell you something about the scripture in general. This letter to the
Philippians is just that. It is a letter. Paul did not write Roman
numeral one, period, two, three. He didn't write verse numbers. He wrote a letter. It was just text. There were no chapter
divisions, there were no verse identifications. In fact, until the year
1227 AD, all of the Bible was text, no
chapters, no verses. In 1227 the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Stephen Langton, decided it would be much easier
to be able to find something in the Bible if there were
chapters and verse numbers. So he did that. And then in the 1300s, 1382,
the very first English Bible that had verse numbers was
the Wycliffe English Bible. And that's helpful. However, I don't always agree
with where they put the verses. In fact, many Bible translators
have said the same thing. They go, no, that verse
belongs in a different chapter. The way it was broken
up is not inspired, but it can be
helpful nonetheless. And here is a good example. In Verse 18, the
NIV, if you have a new international
version, shows the break that should be there. Verse 18 in the NAV reads this. It ends with this phrase. And because of this,
I rejoice period. Not comma, period. Then it begins a new paragraph. And the new paragraph says yes,
I will continue to rejoice. That's because the thought of
Verse 18, that last phrase, belongs in Verse 19. He is now moving from
the past to the future. See here is what Paul
has been writing so far. He's saying, the things that
have happened to me in the past will not rob me of joy. I'm not going to
let that happen. They've actually
furthered the gospel. And so what things are those? Well, let's go over them. He was arrested in
Jerusalem, falsely accused. He was then taken to
Caesarea by the Sea. He spent two years
in jail there. He went through three
mistrials before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. He appealed his case to Caesar. He's put on a prison ship. He's taken to Rome. He's had a shipwreck
in the ocean. He finally makes it to Rome. He's put in jail again for
another two-year incarceration. And he says all of those things
happened to me in the past, and they will not steal my joy. Then he says, not only are
there past circumstances, there are past and
present people who are trying to rob me of joy. We spoke about those last
week all those anti-Paul, cranky Christians
who were trying to make Paul's incarceration
even worse than it already was. He says, I'm not going
to let them steal my joy or get me down. And all of that ends in Verse
18 where he says, I rejoice. Now he turns to the future. At the second part of Verse
18, he pivots and says, yes, and I will rejoice. Now he's looking to the future. And here's the deal. Once again, I remind
you, Paul doesn't know what's going to
happen in the future as far as circumstances
are concerned. All he knows is that he's going
to stand before the Roman court for a trial. And because, as a Roman citizen,
he appealed to Caesar directly, that means he's going to
stand in front of Caesar Nero himself, and Caesar Nero
will render the verdict. He will either set him free
or he will sever his head. He will either exonerate
him or exterminate him. Paul doesn't know which. He says as much in Verse 20,
whether by life or by death. Yet he makes this prediction. I will rejoice. I'm going to have
joy in my future. Now, when hearing
this, some of us would be tempted to say,
wait a minute, Paul, you can't say that,
because what if he hands you a guilty verdict
and says, off with his head? Then you're going to have to
say, well, I used to rejoice, but not today. Today's a bummer. My bummer runneth over today. Paul says, no, I'm
not going to say that. In my future, whether by life
or death, I will rejoice. And here's why I am
belaboring this point. This shows us that
joy is a choice. It is an act of the will. It is tethered to something
deeper than happiness. If you remember in our very
first study of Philippians, we noted the difference
between happiness and joy. We said happiness is a
temporary feeling of delight if the circumstances
go your way. Joy is something that is fixed. There is a difference. By the way, the Bible mentions
happiness about 30 times. It mentions joy 300
times, because they're different experiences,
and it's helpful to make a demarcation between them. So happiness is
externally triggered. If you get a raise,
you're happy. Somebody pays you a
compliment, you're happy. You get a new car, you are
happy for about a week until you have to make the
payments on that new car. If your team wins, you're happy. If you ask that cute girl out
and she says yes, you're happy. Happiness goes up and down
depending on the circumstances. Joy is internally triggered. It is based upon a
relationship with God. You are justified by faith. Your sins are forgiven. Your name is written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. You're on your way to heaven. That's something that is fixed. So happiness has its source
in events, in people, and in things. Joy has its source in God,
which means Paul may have been experiencing unhappy feelings. He may be emotionally
unhappy, incarcerated in jail and going through the
beatings, et cetera. Nobody likes that. But what he is saying
is, nothing and no one will steal my joy. That's why this book
is so filled with it. In four chapters of the Book
of Philippians, joy, rejoicing, gladness shows up 19 times. This prisoner writes about joy. So Paul is looking
out from prison bars, and he sees the star of joy. He says, not only have I
rejoiced, I will rejoice. That's the first one. The second prediction he makes-- the second star that he sees
is the star of confidence. Look at Verse 19. For I know that this will
turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the
supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Did you hear the
tone in his voice? Do you hear the certainty? For I know. He is sure about
something, isn't he? He. Didn't say, well, I
think, I hope, I suppose. I know. It's a very strong word You see, your outlook is
determined by your uplook. And Paul is looking out
and up from that prison, and he sees not only
the stars, he sees the God who made the stars. And he goes, I am
confident, I know. This is a man of faith. He is filled with faith. If joy is an act of the
will, then confidence is a statement of faith. Question. What is he so confident in? What does your text tell you? What is he confident
is going to happen? I know this will
turn out for my what? It says deliverance. I know I'm going
to be delivered. Now what does that mean? Well, the word deliverance
is the common word in the New Testament, soterion. It's the word for salvation. I know this is
going to turn out. I know, I'm confident
this is going to turn out for my salvation, literally. Soterion, translated
deliverance. Now Paul is not saying,
I'm an unsaved person and I hope that if I suffer
enough in jail, I'll be saved. He didn't say that. That would contradict him. Some people think
that Paul is saying, I know that I'm going to
be sprung out of jail. I'm going to be set free. He can't mean that, because
in Verse 20 he says, whether by life or by death. So I could live or I could die. So when he says,
I know that this is going to be for my
deliverance, that's Paul's way of saying, I'm
going to be just fine. Deliverance could be
better translated, perhaps, my well-being. Things are going to
turn out for the best. This is Paul's, Philippians one
way of restating Romans 8:28. You know Romans 8:28. For we know that all
things work together for good for those
who love God and are the called according
to his purpose. This is the same truth
stated in a different manner. Paul's in prison. He's not sure how God's
going to deliver him, if he's going to deliver
him from the trial or through the trial. He doesn't know if he's
going to live or die. But he goes, I'm just fine. I know I'm going
to be delivered. Let me explain something to you. I've prayed for a lot of people
who are sick through the years, and quite honestly I
pray for some people and they get better. And it's always fun
to watch that happen. I've even seen, on a
couple of rare occasions, an instantaneous healing. I won't deny that. I've seen it with my own eyes. But I've also prayed for
people who don't get better. They get worse. I pray for them. They get worse. I pray more for them. They die. So be careful. Let's get Skip to
pray for this one. I have no special ability. God is sovereign. He does what He wants. So I prayed for some
people, they get better. Some people, they get worse. Some people, they
live a long time. Some people, they die. God delivered them all. Some people He delivers by
giving them 20 years on earth. Some people he says, no,
they're done with life on earth. Let's take them to heaven. That's not a bad gig. They get delivered completely. And that's Paul's thought. I am confident in my future
that things will turn out for my deliverance. Now what is the means
of Paul's confidence? What's the agency of it? Well, it's twofold. Through the prayers
of God's people, and through the provision
of God's spirit. Look at it yourself, please. I know this will turn out for my
deliverance through your prayer and through the supply of
the spirit of Jesus Christ. Here's what he's saying. As you keep praying, and
as God keeps providing, I'm going to be fine. I face my future
with confidence. Now let's drill
down a little bit. Consider prayer for a moment. I am absolutely confident
in my future well-being through your prayer. He is assuming the
Philippian church is already praying for them. But in writing this, he's
asking for more prayer. Now I'm going to
make a statement that might be shocking to you,
but I believe it to be true. We marginalize prayer. We really do. Most of us believers, most
of us, we marginalize prayer. We doubt that prayer will
even work, quite frankly. You know how I know that? Because if we
didn't believe that, we'd be doing a
whole lot more of it. If we really thought prayer
had the power to change things, to change us, to change
people, we'd be doing it a lot. Paul is so sure that as long
as they are praying for him, he can be joyful and he can
be confident in the future. A few years back I had the
privilege of going to London and visiting Charles Haddon
Spurgeon's church called the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And of course, Spurgeon
lived in the 1800s, died. But his church still stands. It has survived wars,
burnings, bombings. The facade is still there. The church has
been rebuilt. But I loved going there because I
remember all the stories, not only about Spurgeon and how many
people came to hear him preach. But he would-- if he took people
on a tour of the facility, he would show them
the great tabernacle where he would preach. But he took them to
the basement where there was a little empty
room, a meager room. And he'd point to
the room and say, this is the powerhouse
and the reason that this church
is blessed by God. It was a prayer room. He said, when I preach there is
a group of people every service that meets in this
room, and they pray that the spirit of
God would be unleashed. This is the secret. This is the power. Leonard Ravenhill said this. The church has many organizers
but few agonizers, many who pay but few who pray, many
wresters but few wrestlers, many who are enterprising,
few who are interceding. A worldly Christian
will stop praying, and a praying Christian
will stop worldliness. Tithes may build a church,
but tears will give it life. Now why should we pray? There's a lot of reasons. I'll give you just two. Reason number one. Spiritual work always
requires spiritual tools. One of the most
frustrating endeavors is to try to do a
work of the spirit in the energy of your flesh. You are doomed for failure. Second reason. It produces confidence,
according to the text. I am confident
through your prayers. It's a spiritual tool. It produces confidence. Two good reasons to keep it up. So one means of
Paul's confidence is through their prayer. Notice the second,
and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will give
you everything you need. Now you see the word
supply in that text? It literally means
a lavish supply. A lavish supply. The Greek word is [GREEK]. We get our word
chorus from that. It literally means one
voice upon another. So if Ryan stands
up here singing, and Tamara stands up
here and adds a harmony, and Steven stands up here
and adds yet another harmony, and their voices blend in melody
and harmonies, first, third, and fifth, you're
stacking up the voices. Then if you add a choir next
to them, you have an [GREEK].. You have a lavish supply
of beautiful voices. So what Paul is saying is this. The reason I'm confident
is because you keep praying and because the Holy Spirit
lavishly supplies everything I need to handle the future. Here's the truth. The hand of God will never
lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you. He will lavishly
supply what you need. You know Zechariah
Chapter 4 Verse 6. You'll finish it as
I start quoting it. It's not by might,
it's not by power. It's by-- say it. My spirit, says the Lord. Not by might, not by power, but
by my spirit, says the Lord. So Paul is confident
in the future if there are praying
friends and plenty of fuel, and the fuel is the Holy Spirit. So Paul looks out
of his prison bars. He sees two stars, the star of
joy, the star of confidence. He predicts them both. But he sees a third
star, the star of hope. Verse 20. According to my earnest
expectation and hope. Earnest expectation means
about the same thing as the next noun, hope. They really go together. Earnest expectation is like
an intense form of hope, active hope, you might say. According to my
earnest expectation, active hope, and hope
that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with
all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be
magnified in my body whether by life or by death. Now you know, you've known this
because you hear me every week. You know I love words. So this word here,
earnest expectation, literally means
to watch something with outstretched head. Go ahead, stretch your head up. You've just done what this
verse is talking about, this earnest expectation. Now here's where
the word came from. In old times, when somebody
would see something on the horizon coming, like an
army or a group of emissaries approaching, people
would stand on the walls and stretch their heads
out, and they'd see, now what's happening out there? Is that a war or is that a
letter coming, or what is it? It's the same thing if
you go to a baseball game and the batter hits the
ball into left center, and everybody's head goes-- they're watching it. They're kind of anticipating,
where is it going to go? Home run? Oh, he caught it. When I was a kid, we
used to watch golf on television, which some people
swear is a cure for insomnia. But we used to love it. And same thing. The ball is hit and it
goes into its trajectory, and you see everybody
in the galley. Where is that going? Is that going to
go on the green? Is that going to go
in the sand trap? So here is Paul looking
to his future, saying, I have an active hope. My neck and head
are stretched out, and I have an eager
hope and anticipation. I hope you're saying, what for? I'll tell you what for. Verse 20 tells us. That in nothing I shall be
ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now Christ will
be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. Here's what he's saying
is, I look to the future. The one great concern that I
hope for more than anything else is that I will be a
faithful witness for Christ, that I won't be ashamed,
but that I will be bold. It's amazing that he says this. He didn't say, I
have one great hope, and that is that
I get out of jail. I have one great hope that I can
escape this pain and suffering. He said, I have one great
hope whether I live or die. I want to be a
witness for Christ. I'm looking for opportunities
to represent Christ. What I hope for is that
I might express my faith and exalt my Savior. When I was a young
Christian, I was morbidly afraid of
witnessing to another person, telling them about Jesus. I was embarrassed. To be honest, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed
about the Gospel. The reason I was embarrassed
is because I was afraid that they would
reject the message, and that would make it seem
like they were rejecting me. So I just held back. For the first several months
it was very difficult. Then something kicked into
gear, and I could never shut up after that. Howard Hendricks
put it this way. In the midst of a generation
screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering. I was stuttering. Paul is saying, my great
hope for the future is that I will not stutter,
but that I will be bold. It means to have
freedom of speech, bold. You know what? We need to be bold. While the world is breaking bad,
we need to be breaking bold. That's what we need to
be doing, breaking bold. You know the world-- yeah. The world is bold
about what it believes, and they're becoming bolder. They're not ashamed of
what they believe in. They'll use every
opportunity they can, every song they write, every
news program, every sitcom, every movie to
further their agenda. They are not afraid, they are
bold to share their values on abortion, on
homosexuality, on promiscuity. They want to get that out
there and get it in your face. It's time for Christians
to get out of the closet and be bold, and not be
embarrassed and not be ashamed. [APPLAUSE} You say, Skip, I
can clap for that, but boy, that's hard for me. I'm just not that. I'm not a vocal person. I'm not a bold person. Fair enough. Just ask God to make you bold. I'll be bold. I'll be a witness as
long as you keep praying and the spirit keeps
providing, see? So let's just start there. God, make me a bolder person. So he's praying for that. He wants that. He hopes for that. That's his earnest
expectation and hope, that in nothing I
shall be ashamed. But look at this. With all boldness. As always-- he's always
been bold up to this point. So now-- in this present
situation facing Caesar Nero-- so now Christ will be
magnified in my body whether by life or death. You know magnified means? Magnified. That's really what it means. It just means to
enlarge something, to make it bigger than it is, to
enlarge it, to make it bigger, or to make it greater. So I have a question for you. How can you make the greatest
person in the world greater? How can you magnify
Christ in your body? He's already great. How can you make him greater? Well, I'm glad you asked. I'll give you an example,
then an explanation. If you look up
tonight at the stars, if there's not light
pollution and you can see some of the stars
flickering, those stars, those little twinkles,
some of them are enormous. Some of those stars are 1,000
million miles in diameter, or 12,000 times
larger than the sun. Yet you look at them
and they just twinkle. They flicker. You can barely see them. So if you want to
see them better, what do you look through? A telescope. When you look through a
telescope, what happens? They get magnified. You're magnifying. You're enlarging them. When you enlarge them, it seems
like you brought them closer, and now you see them clearer. So here's how it works. To most people in this world,
Jesus Christ is 2000 years ago. He's so far away. He's so in the distance. He's so un-apprehendable. He's so irrelevant. That happened 2000 years
ago, until you show up. Now by you, by them
looking at your life, he's either magnified, brought
closer, clearer, or mini-fied. Remember as a kid, you'd
take that telescope? Sometimes, just for fun,
you'd turn it around, you'd look through
the other end. And everybody-- could be
right in front of you, they seemed like
they're 40 miles away. Paul says, you know what? I want boldness. I'm looking for opportunities
to represent Christ because I want the
great one to be even greater through my body. As I give him my hands,
my feet, my mouthpiece, let him use my life. I present my body, Romans
12:1, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which
is my reasonable service. Christ is magnified
by our bodies. So Paul looks out from his
prison bars, doesn't see mud. He does see stars. He sees the star of joy,
confidence, and hope. He predicts that. There is a fourth star. And that is the star of life. Verse 21 sums it up. It's sort of his
motto, his slogan. For me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. Now that's one of the most
famous verses in the Bible. Among Christian circles,
you've heard it, or you've heard it quoted,
or you have quoted it. But this is Paul's slogan. This could have been
on Paul's tombstone. Wouldn't that be great? Here lies the Apostle Paul. For him, to live was Christ. To die was gain. Every time I read words
by Paul in the Bible, I kind of step away from
it going, who is this guy? I'll tell you one thing. Paul wasn't a guy
for small talk. You know, you might sit
down with a cup of coffee, and he might get past
the hellos pretty quickly and just say, let me
ask you about Christ. Why do you ask him about Christ? Because for me to
live is Christ. My life is Christ. And if I die, I keep
living because I'm with Christ for me to live
is Christ and to die is gain. Reminds me of kid who
went to Sunday school, went to a new church
in a new town. And the first day of
church, after Sunday school, his parents said, well,
how was Sunday school? He said, oh, it was good. They said, well, tell
me about your teacher. And he paused and
he says, well, she must have been
Jesus' grandmother because Jesus was
the only one she kept talking about the whole class. I like that. That's sort of like
Paul the Apostle. He must be related to
Jesus because that's the only guy he talks about. For me, to live is Christ. Therefore, to die is gain,
because you'll be with him. Now take that little phrase and
make it your own for a minute. For me to live is blank. Fill in the blank. And then to die is blank. The only one that would-- only thing or person you
could put in the first blank to make it say gain
would be Christ. Let me show you this. Let's say you were to say,
for me to live is wealth. Well, then, you have to
say, then to die is loss, because you cannot take
your wealth with you. You leave it all behind. So for you, it is
getting a lot of money. Then when you die,
it's a total loss. If you were to
say, for me to live is fame and
notoriety and status, then you'd also have
to say, for me to die is loss, because you
lose it when you die. You're famous only
here, but not there. If you say, for me to live is
having a perfect physical body, well, you're going to have
to put loss there, too, because when you die you
get real ugly real quick, like in a day. The only one, or thing, you
could put that says gain is Christ. For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. That's why this is the
summum bonum of Paul's life. This is the pinnacle statement
that sums up everything. For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. Here's Paul. He's in prison. Doesn't know if he's
going to live or die. If I live I'll live for Christ. If I die I'll live with Christ. Either way there's life
in either equation. Jesus said this. I am the Resurrection
and the life. Whoever believes in me, though
he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Paul believed that. Paul believed that. Now we should close by telling
you what happened to Paul. Paul, in jail, will be set free. And he'll spend a
year out of jail. We don't know what
he's doing, but I'll tell you what, for
him to live is Christ, so he's out there doing
something for Christ. He's preaching the gospel,
starting some church somewhere. A year later he gets
arrested again in Troas and brought to Rome
the second time. This time he's not
under house arrest like he is now, with a
little bit of freedom. The second time he
is placed in a prison called the Mamertine
prison in Rome. It's still there. It's a hole in the ground. There are no windows in it. It is solitary confinement. He gets food that is
lowered through a rope in the hole in the ground. That's where he
spends his final days. He's taken up out of the
Mamertine prison, taken to the Basilica
Julia, a building that was built by and for Julius
Caesar, named after him. And he is given the death
verdict, condemned to die. History tells us how he died. Let me tell you how AT
Robertson describes it. "The crowds flowed into town. Some were going out. Paul was only a criminal
going to be beheaded. Few, if any, in the
crowd would know or care anything about him. At a good place on the road
some miles out, the executioner stopped. The block was laid down. The executioner stood
ready, axe in hand. The men stripped Paul,
tied him, kneeling upright to the low pillar which
exposed his back and his neck. The lictors beat him with
rods for the last time. He groaned and bled from
his nose and his mouth. And then, without a
hint of hesitation, the executioner frowned as he
swung the blade down swiftly, hitting its mark
with a dull thud. And the head of the greatest
preacher of the ages rolled upon the ground." That's how Paul died. Now Paul said, for
me to live is Christ. To die is gain. For that one year, he
was preaching Christ. Now, in that one
brutal moment, Paul moved from the
imperial city of Rome to the external city of heaven. He was preaching Christ. Now he is with Christ. And Paul knew it all along. That's why he wasn't afraid. If I live, I'll preach Christ. You kill me, I'll be with him. Either way, I win. Either way, I'm delivered. Either way, I'm
going to rejoice. I'm going to be confident. I'm going to have
hope because I'm going to have life either way. Now I told you at the
beginning of this study that you can predict your
future responses, but not your future circumstances. I was wrong, actually. There is one circumstance
you can predict. And that is, will you spend
eternity in heaven or in hell? I can predict accurately
that because I believe in Jesus Christ, and
not my own good works or my religious
works, but I trust in his finished work,
unequivocally, no doubts at all, I'm going to heaven. I have no doubts. [APPLAUSE] And many of you have those
same set of confident hope that I have. Some of you don't. And if you don't know Jesus
Christ, if you don't receive what he did for you, if you
don't humble yourself and turn from your past and turn
to Him, which is called being born again,
Jesus said you'll never see the kingdom of heaven. Be a tragedy for that to
be true in anyone here. So I want to give
you an opportunity, as we close in this
welcome weekend, to welcome him into your heart. Let's bow in prayer. Father, thank you for
the love of Jesus Christ as seen in a man called
Paul the Apostle, a man who believed the words
that Jesus said that he was the Resurrection and the life,
that anyone who believes in Him would never die. And though we might
have physical separation from our body, our
soul, our spirit lives on with you,
awaiting Resurrection. That's hope. That's enough to be
confident in, joyful over, and to live for you because of. Lord I just want to
pray for anyone here who doesn't know Jesus personally. They've heard about him. They know people who love him. They know some of the songs
we sing that honor him. They know certain
facts regarding him, and yet they do not have
a relationship with him. Lord, would you change that? If you're alive, and we believe
you are, Jesus, that means you conquered death. And every promise
you made is going to come true because you proved
the ultimate promise that you made came true. And that is, you
rose from the grave. And you're available
to change lives. And I pray you change
some here this morning. With your head bowed,
your eyes closed, I'm going to give you an
opportunity to receive Christ. If you are not sure that if you
were to die you'd go to heaven, I want you to be sure. If you've been trusting in
yourself, your goodness, your merits, your
intellect, your sweetness, your personality, your
church affiliation, your parental upbringing, but
you haven't trusted personally in Jesus Christ, or
you've been saying, I'm willing to turn from my sin
and turn to Jesus as Savior, I want to give you an
opportunity to say yes to Him. I'd love to know who you are. I'd love to pray for you
if you want to do that. I need to know who you are. So I'd like you, if you are
willing, at this moment, to turn from your past and
turn to Christ, to just simply surrender
your life to Him, would you raise
your hand in the air just so I can acknowledge you? Keep it up for a
moment so I can see it. God bless you to my left,
and you in the middle, and you right up here in
the middle in the front. Anyone else? Raise that hand up, please. Just saying, in
raising your hand, I surrender to you, Lord Jesus,
I surrender my life to you. Just raise your hand up. In the family room,
couple of you. Father, thank you for these whom
you love so dearly and deeply, intimately, individually. Lord, I pray that their
future would change and they would know it as they
receive Jesus into their lives. Strengthen them to live for you. Give them a newfound sense of
joy that everything in the past is erased and there are
new creatures in Christ. Set them free in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you stand to your feet? As we close with
the final song, I'm going to ask those of
you who raised your hand to do something. I hope you don't
find it embarrassing. I hope you find it encouraging. And that is to get up and out
of where you are standing now and find the nearest
aisle and simply walk right up here to the front. I'm going to lead you in a word
of prayer to receive Christ. We're going to do this
deal right here, right now. You've said, yeah,
I want to do that. So I'm going to
ask you to come up. I'm going to lead you in a
prayer as we sing this song. You just come. If you raised your hand,
if I acknowledged you, if you're in the
family room, just come right through the
door of the family room, through the hallway, and stand
right up here in the front. [APPLAUSE} If you're outside, a pastor
will bring you inside. If you're next door
in the overflow, a Pastor will bring
you over here. But you get up and come. Do it quickly. Do it now. [SINGING] Christ is enough for me. Christ is enough for me. And everything I need is in you. And everything I need is in you. Before I pray, just a word
to those who may be actually needing to be here but aren't. I just want to encourage
you to not watch this any longer, to be a part of it. Put yourself as
the center of it. Jesus loves you. He died for you. God made you for
Him, for His glory. He wants to have a
relationship with you. But the Bible says he knocks. He's a gentleman, you know. He knocks at the
door of your heart. He didn't come in with a SWAT
team and bust your door down. He just knocks. He says, I'll come
in if you let me. If you don't let him,
he won't come in. He's saying, let me in. If you're willing to let
him in, then you come. Get up out of your seat
and just say, I'm coming. I need to do this. I have for a long time. I want my past erased. I want my name written
in God's book of life. I want to go to heaven,
pure and simple. You get up and you come. Just say excuse me. If you're in the
middle of a row, you're on the balcony,
come down, prayers room, doesn't matter where. Front row. Take a few steps forward. You just make sure
that you know Jesus. If you don't, get down here. [SINGING] Christ is enough for me. Christ is enough for me. And everything I need is in you. And everything I need. Those of you who
came forward, I'm going to lead you
now in a prayer. I'm going to ask you to
say this prayer out loud. Say these words after me. Say them from your heart. Mean them, because you're
praying directly to God. You're asking Jesus to
come inside your heart. OK? Come on up. Let's pray. Say Lord, I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus
Christ, that he was sent from heaven to earth,
that he died on a cross, that he shed his blood for me,
and that he rose from the dead. I turn from my sin. I repent of it. I turned to Jesus as my Savior. Help me to follow
him as my Lord. I ask this in his name. Amen. [APPLAUSE} Paul expected good
things from his future, even if it meant his
possible execution. Did this message change
how you view your future? We'd love to know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque.
