PHILIPPIANS 1:20-21 – As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
THEME OF THE DAY. LIVES ON THE BIG SCREEN. I want us to picture this scene. The past week of our lives has been video recorded. Yes, all 168 hours of it. We are now gathered in an auditorium. One by one, our video is being played to the audience. Every detail of our lives is on public display; what we did with our free time, where we went, who we associated with, how we talked, what we let our eyes see, our conduct in our homes and on the job, the choice of recreation we enjoyed, and the type of entertainment we put before us. Now we know each other supposedly rather well. We each claim to be Christians who love the Lord.
In the process of watching my video, are you going to be affirmed or confused? Are the things you watch of my life the past week the strongest of evidence I am what I say I am – a Christ-loving, Christ-centered person? Or are you sitting there scratching your head and feeling disappointed, even deceived, by what you are viewing? Are you watching more a man focused on self and the world than Christ and His Word? Do you see a man who is serious about his profession of faith and that lived out daily, throughout the day? Or are you seeing a contradiction by seeing me give more time to the world and selfish desires than the Lord and His desires? Flip the switch. I am now watching your past week on the big screen. What am I seeing? Are you humbly praising the Lord because He is the center of all your life? Or are you embarrassed because there are gaps, maybe big gaps, between what you publicly say you are but in the privacy of your day-to-day life, Christ is not the chief affection of your heart and the compass directing all of your life?
Friends, this video is real. Life is being recorded. In heaven. By God. He is observing our lives. He knows if what we say is who we are. And in today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul gives us two really good points of application to help us ensure the video of our lives is pleasing to the Lord and impacting others for Him.
First, live each day with a goal to not let one act, word, attitude or action bring dishonor or shame to the Lord. Paul writes, “As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed.” Let this resolve become a daily discipline. It will keep us spiritually sensitive to live in the presence of the Lord in all things, at all times, and in all places.
Next, make pleasing the Lord the motivator in every action we do. Again from Paul, “For me to live is Christ”. This type of thinking makes us live with the awareness that our Lord could call us to Himself at any moment. And no one wants to be engaged in a Christ-dishonoring act or being in a Christ-dishonoring event or place should we be called to Him.
We may not be observing each of our lives on a large screen with great detail, but One far more important is . . . the Lord Himself. May He help us to live accordingly.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to live my life as a citizen of heaven orienting all my affections and thinking by Your heavenly Kingdom.”
QUOTE: “The evidence of new life in Christ is a heart fixed on the new heavens and earth.”