What would you do if Jesus gave you the option to live or to go be with Him?

What does the Apostle Paul mean when he says “for me to live is Christ”?

Relationships need rules to survive
We are religious people binding ourselves to God
We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ

What will you do with your life?

Our desires for pleasure

CS Lewis
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud.

It’s not that our desire for pleasure is too strong, but our desire for real pleasure is too weak!!!

St Patrick’s prayer

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.

That’s what it means to live for Christ!!

What does the Apostle Paul mean when he says, “to die is gain”?

We ought to anticipate death because that means we will be with Christ,

We should not be anxious nor fearful about death,

Although death is still unnatural and it is normal to grieve when people die, especially those we love.

We live in a “safety culture” that perpetuates fear and anxiety about death.

How would Paul act in a time like this (COVID)

Consider all the things he went through.
Sickness
Shipwreck
Beatings
Betrayal.

Any yet his only concern is either bearing fruit for Christ at present or looking forward to death.

He was not overcome with anxiety, but instead was fearless and full of courage.

The greatest negative in this culture is death

The greatest positive for a Christian is death because we know we will be with Christ

Consider a quote by D.L Moody

Mr. Moody once said, "Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; gone out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body like unto His own glorious body."