God is at work

We work to improve. When ever you get on the cross country team you become a team player, but you entire goal once getting on the team is to improve.

How do you improve in Cross Country?

You run and train. or in other words you work! You didn’t necessarily have to work to get on the team but to improve and be better you have to work hard!

That is similar to salvation!

Salvation is something we cannot work for because God extended his Grace to us while we are sinners. But salvation is something that a person must work through after they are justified.

3 weeks ago we talked read the christiological hymn where the verses explained that Jesus came down as a servant who obeyed God even to the point of death. The death that exalted him above all creation. The death that made a way for us to be saved.

Where do you go in a letter once that bombshell is dropped that Jesus who loved us and gave his life for us to have salvation. Paul then continues the letter in this way in which God has chosen to do his work through us.

God uses us who are not worthy to be looked on by God in order for his name to be magnified.

Tonight we are going to continue in the chapter of Philippians:

Philippians 2:12–18 NLT

12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. 17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. 18 Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.

What is the first way in which we can show God’s work within us is through Showing out:

1. Showing out

Philippians 2:12–14 NLT

12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing,

When we realize that we are saved apart from anything that we could do we are called to serve Christ. This is not working for your salvation but this is working because you are saved.

We are now saved by works but we are saved to work!

The Philippians realized this power that they have been granted and the grace that has been shown to them. They continued in the things that Paul had previously instructed them and they continued growing without him being there with them. They were discipled by Paul and they continued to disciple others who were in turn discipling people.

Paul was greatly encouraged by their growth and encouraged them to continue growing without his guidance.

We should be like the disciples in Philippi where we are encouraging others to grow in Christ and are becoming more and more like Christ.

Paul goes on to command them to do just that!

Work hard to show the results of your salvation...

First of all this is not talking about working for your salvation, we couldn’t earn it and we don’t deserve it. Salvation was given to us freely through Christ. None of us are perfect and for us to be made righteous we would have to be perfect. So that would be impossible for us to that on our own.

SOOOO… what does it mean to work out the results of your salvation?

Working out salvation is the process in which you are showing the world what God has done in your life. You are showing out what God has done inwardly in you. This is the process of salvation that is the most difficult thing to do! It the process that is completely contrary to every fiber in our bodies.

This is the process that hurts because we are still in out sinful bodies and still have a free will that wants to revolt against what God’s will is for our lives.

All of us want to do what we want to do when we want to do it.

I so often wish that at the moment of salvation God perfected us in that instant where our only option was to do what God wanted us to do.

But that is not what happens! Every single day we are in a battle with to choose Christ or to choose sin. And the reality of this situation is that every single day we fail because it is impossible to choose God in our sinful nature.

There is no way that we can become selfless! There is not way that we can be good! There is no way that we can be more like Christ! We cannot be the student that God wants me to be! I can’t be the child Im supposed to be!

WITHOUT GOD WORKING IN US! We can show out what God is doing in us because he is actively working within us!

God works through us but we must get to the point where we have complete faith in God. When we realize that God is perfect and Holy and Righteous and Good and God then that brings about fear and respect towards God.

We work out our salvation with fear and trembling because we understand the weight of who we are serving. We understand the honor we have to serve this God.

The fear is reverent fear towards God not a fear that God is going to strike us down whenever we mess up!

God is working within us to follow his Will. God is working within us for us to become more like him. We still have the option to disobey and fail and honestly we will do both but we have God within us who is moving us to a deeper love with him. This happens when we begin to take serious that the God of the universe. The God that is uncomprehendable is living within each of us who are saved.

The next way that we can show God’s work within us is through:

2. Shining out

Philippians 2:14–16 NLT

14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

How can your faith shine in your everyday life? I am glad that you asked that question!

First of all do everything without complaining or arguing....

MAN I hate that verse!

Why would that be a command that Paul gives the Philippians?

Arguing and complaining as a Christian takes away the special distinctive that God works within us!

God works in us to be moral… God works in us to be different and respond differently than the world.

What happens when you begin to complain about something? You begin complaining about what is within you.

When we complain we are talking about everything that is negative in our lives. When we complain we are proclaiming what we are not satisfied with in our lives. If God is what brings us contentment and sustains us!

When we complain as Christians we are proclaiming to others who God is to us. We need to be uplifting God in a dark world!

This is done through Holding on to the Word of Life!

How many of you have read the Bible ever in your life?

How many of you have read the bible and walked away unchanged or unchallenged the moment you got done reading it?

Reading the bible by itself is not enough for us to Hold fast to the WORD. We must allow for God to open our eyes and talk to us through his word. God’s word is perfect in its intended purpose for living and we must pray that God speaks to us through his word.

We illuminate the world around us when we are changed by God’s Word through grasping hold of him communicating to us!

The goal for Paul was that the moment he see Christ face to face he would stand proudly in his midst because his life was lived solely for God.

Is that our goal or is our goal to uplift ourselves?

When we shine out from the change that God has done in our lives we then have no other option but to begin:

3. Shouting out

Philippians 2:17–18 NLT

17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. 18 Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.

Remember where Paul is at during this letter… He is in prison! But he is still shouting out about rejoicing because of what God is doing in his life as well as the lives of others.

Paul is continuing on the theme of Philippians in this chapter of rejoicing in Christ despite the possibility of losing his life.

His purpose for living is that Christ is glorified because he has realized the honor it is to be saved through his grace. He new that he didn’t deserve salvation which lead him to unashamedly live out his life serving God.

He is rejoicing that regardless of the suffering and even if his life is poured out like a drink offering Paul is willingly serving God.

He is also commending the Philippians in their serving of God as well. They are serving and sharing the gospel with those around them. They are discipling others to grow in their faith. They are losing their lives for Christ but they are rejoicing in the fact that they are reaching people through their deaths.

Paul concludes this thought with and encouragement that they should rejoice with Paul in the advancement of the Gospel. They should rejoice in the fact that God is magnified throughout the world because God is using ordinary people.

How is that you can serve God now in you everyday life?

How can you serve or a better question would be how can you sacrifice at school?

When you are at school do you look at people as people having a soul? Do you look at people as if they are eternal beings and they are going to spend their whole eternity in either heaven or hell.

Do you recognize that they are in need of salvation and that you are the way they hear about this salvation?

Everyday you walk around seeing people in need and they see you working out your salvation! Are you showing a salvation that is worth emulating?