Whenever something is of

to you, whenever something is of tremendous value to you,

whenever you cherish something because of its uniqueness or its power or its beauty, there is an

inevitable longing that you draw others' attention to it so that they can share your high regard for it.

And that's why Paul's all-consuming goal in life was that people magnify Christ, because Christ was of infinite value to Paul.

Whenever something is of tremendous value to us, we want to draw others attention to it.

So the more we see and savor Christ,

the more will we want to make him known.

That's John Piper's focus from Philippians 1

in this episode of Light and Truth.

This message was John Piper's

candidateing sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church

in January 1980.

As you know, there's a city in northern Greece called Philippi, Paul on his second missionary journey, founded a church there,

a church that he came to love very, very much.

It's evident from his letter.

And 12 years later, he was in jail, in Rome, on trial for his life, and in those intervening 12 years,

this church had more than any other church supported Paul in his ministry financially and they loved him.

He was their apostle and they held him in high esteem. And when they found out that he was on trial for his life, they didn't dissociate with him to save their necks.

Instead, they align themselves with him and they sent off apathyiditis with more gifts to support him.

But Epaphroditis also brings bad news to Paul there in Rome.

He says to Paul that back there in the church

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