note -- I preached just using this outline, not a manuscript.  It has musical notations because of my attempt at something.  As you can tell by the sides, I like the Pauline phrase, "To live is Christ, to die is gain."  Well, I don't like it as much as think it's the essential statement of his message and of the Christian life.  But what does it mean?  I asked myself this my junior year at Wheaton, and prayed to be able to learn to say this for myself.  God is teaching me this.  I'm getting there.  Well, because I see this as the core... all of Paul boiled down to a short phrase, I thought of a similar motif -- that of Beethoven's 5th symphony.  Ideally, I would have framed the style to match the style of the symphony.  It was a good idea, but didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, partly because I just didn't prepare nearly as I should.  Hey, it was summer.  

I.                     Allegro con brio -- To Live is Christ -- Christ leads to life

A.     Introduction to the theme.  To live is Christ

B.     Let me tell you about Paul…

1.      Paul the Jew,  Paul the one called, Paul the one transformed

C.     salvation -- Life vs. Death.  Rom3:21

we are spiraling towards destruction, some more obviously than others but all still the same.  Sin has infected, and the human system is not unstable.

D.     Becoming Christologically focused.

II.                  Andante con moto -- To Live is Christ -- Christ becomes our life

A.     Paul as Apostle

B.     fullness -- Life vs. emptiness

C.     perfection --  Life vs. corruption

D.     staying Christologically focused. 

III.               Allegro -- To die is gain -- our hope becomes fulfilled

A.     Paul's and Eternity

B.     Hope -- life vs. damnation

C.     Victory -- Completeness vs. incompleteness

D.     Becoming eschatologically focused

IV.              Allegro -- To Live is Christ, To die is gain -- for us and all.

A.     Our theme -- the shared notes of all voicing different parts, rooted in the same chord, all different, all the same, unity, harmony, melody.  A resonation of beauty which goes beyond the sum of the parts.

B.     Discovering our theme -- does it match, can we say with Paul, really say…

C.     If we can't then no worries, work to say it, make it your life to find the right tune.

Repeat after me… "To live is Christ" 3x. 4^th "To live is Christ, to die is gain"

D.     The development of this theme, without this theme all goes poorly, we grate on ourselves and on the world because we are out of tune.  If we say we follow Christ we must share the same tune. 

E.      Power in the Spirit -- we can say it because we share the same Spirit.  God has called us to be who we now are in Christ.

F.      Developing our Spiritual 'ear'.

G.     To Live is Christ, and to die is gain.