Untitled Sermon

Let's stand together.

If you don't have a Bible, hopefully there's one in your pew or in your row. Just kind of look down the row and somebody will hand you one. I'd like for you to follow along as we read, we study together. Philippians chapter 2. I'm going to start at verse 12, so follow along as I read. Paul says,

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. Long verse, long sentence.

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Again, just for the sake of bringing us up to speed, we're studying the book of Philippians under the heading of learning to rejoice in the Lord. Believing that rejoicing in the Lord is something that is learned by believers as we grow.

Has nothing to do with being happy. Has everything to do with an assurance of God's working in any circumstance, or any situation. And that's something as believers we have to learn. That's part of our growth process. That's part of our maturing in the Lord. And so we're learning about that as we study this book of Philippians. And as I mentioned at first service, since this study,

I doubt whether your circumstances have changed in life. They probably haven't. They more than likely have gotten more intense since we began this study. But hopefully from chapter one, you have seen that these are simply opportunities to serve Christ. Rejoicing in the Lord as he gives us opportunities to serve. In the midst of these difficulties. Now, three things.

I'm not going to go through all of chapter one again. So those that have been here for any length of time, don't worry. I'm not going to review that much. The three things out of chapter one that I want you to carry, not only through our study in Philippians, but throughout life, are found in verse one of chapter one of Philippians. And that is who you are, and what you are, and where you are.

Those three things, if you can grasp and begin to understand and let the Lord minister to you in your daily life, will help you grow in learning to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord in every circumstance in life. And who you are, verse one, is you are a bond slave. Servants, it says. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. Bond slaves of Jesus Christ. And we've looked at that before, what a bond slave is.

It's a slave, a servant who has given up any hope of ever being free on his own. It's a servant who loves his master and is willing to just submit everything in his life to his master to be at the beck and call of his master's whim. Whatever his master wants to do, he surrenders all of his rights to his master. And that's what we are. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, that's what you are.

A bond slave of Jesus Christ. And so, don't get rattled about the circumstances that you're in. God has placed you there. But he's a loving God. And he will not give you more than you can bear. But you're his bond slave and he has purposes in mind for you that you need to submit to him in. It's when we resist, it's when we say, no Lord, not that, that we run into all kinds of problems and anxiety and frustration.

Second, also in verse one of chapter one, you are a saint. You are a saint. To all the saints in Christ Jesus, this letter is written at Philippi and everywhere else. A saint is a hagios in the Greek. And it means someone who is set apart unto God for special service. Somebody who's been taken out of the midst now and set apart unto God. God has set you apart unto himself.

He has something in mind that he wants to do in and through you in the world. And so he set you apart unto himself. And as you realize that, you realize, well, set apart unto God, I'm set apart to do this, maybe not this. And so, Lord, I want to, I want to be yielded to you to do whatever you want me to do as I'm set apart unto you. And I don't want to resist you by wanting to run over here

when that's not what I've been set apart to do. See, again, that's where we run into frustration is when we're set apart unto God for his service and he wants to use us in this way. And we're going, no, I want to go over here and play over here. And we run into all kinds of frustration and stress where that's concerned. I read an article this week about a pastor who's older now,

but he was relating this kind of idea where his, his three-year-old son, this is back when they, and maybe you still use a double-edged razor. I don't want to date anybody, you know, but maybe you do. There's nothing wrong with that. You can, that's great. Anyhow, he had thrown one of his double-edged blades away and his three-year-old son found it in the trash

and came walking into where his dad was and said, you know, look, dad, what I've got. And he said, he looked and here's this double-edged razor blade sitting in his three-year-old son's hand. And his dad, he said that he said to his son, son, give that to me. And he said, the three-year-old son just closed it over and closed his hand over it and said, no, now I know your three-year-old children don't do that, right?

Your kids don't do that. But he said, he said, he sat there for a minute and he thought and he said, well, here, let me trade you this toy for what you have in your hand. And the son said, no, and was more defiant. And so then as we are as parents, you know, we think, well, let's reason. We can reason with children, right? And they, they, he said, he said that he told his son

how that was a dangerous instrument and it could cut him if he, if he kept hanging onto it in his hand. So he wanted to take it from him so that it wouldn't hurt him. And the son said, no, and was more defiant. And so he said, for his son's own safety and his son's own sake, he said, I had to go over. And he said, I grabbed his arm so that he wouldn't move it and cut himself.

And he said, I had to, I had to hold him tight. And then I had to pry his fingers open and take that razor blade out of his hand. And he said, my son was safe now, but he was throwing a tremendous tantrum because he didn't have what he wanted. You see, that's how we can be too often is God has called us and he, we are bond slaves. We have surrendered our lives to him

and he has set us apart unto himself where his saint, his servant. And yet we want to hang on to whatever it is here, like that double-edged blade. And God's saying, no, I didn't make you for that. I didn't call you apart for you to do that. I didn't, you know, I want you to give me that habit or give me that lifestyle or give me that mindset or give me your tongue that, you know,

is just a vicious thing. I want that. And like that three-year-old child, we'll go, no, you know. And God says, look, I'll give you this. You'll have life more abundantly if you give me that. It's going to be greater for you to do that. And defiantly, like that three-year-old child, we go, no. And he explains to us how if we continue on that path, it's going to be destructive.

It will eventually destroy our testimony. It may even destroy our very lives. And all the more defiantly, we close that hand around whatever it is and say, no. And finally, God lovingly and in an act of discipline that a heavenly father does, he has to grab that hand and pry our fingers off of it and remove that instrument. And then he says, we're not going to be safe.

We're going to be saved. We're going to be safe. But unfortunately, all too often, we find ourselves throwing the tantrum of a three-year-old as he does that. But as we can learn who we are and what we are in Christ and also where we are in Christ, we can begin to grow past that. And the where we are is also found in verse 1 of chapter 1. And that is to all the saints in Christ Jesus.

You and I are in Christ if we're believers. If we have surrendered our lives to Christ, we are in him. And that's not only a point of protection. That's not only a point of protection. That's not only a point of protection. point where we find now a safety in that because anything the enemy wants to do to us, he has to come through Christ to get to us. But it's a point of reference for starting and doing whatever we're

doing in life. Wherever you are geographically or wherever you are in whatever situation in life you're in, you're in Christ as a believer. You're not alone in this strange city. You're not alone as you've moved away from parents or lost loved ones. You're in Christ. That's a point of reference. It's a starting point. It's the greatest place to be. It's the greatest place of safety and

protection and encouragement. And as you and I can remember that, and listen, that's part of the struggle in learning to rejoice in the Lord, is bringing our focus back to that, to remember that. But as we can remember that, it helps us grow into learning to rejoice in the Lord. Now we've carried that into chapter two, and the first 11 verses of chapter two, and the first 11 verses of chapter two, actually show us the mind of Christ. And in verse five, Paul tells us that our attitude should be

the same, or let this mind be in you, depending on the translation that you're reading. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then we spent the last two weeks looking at verses five through 11, and what that mind entails. And it's the mind of a servant. As we've gone through verses five through eight, Jesus laid aside his glory. He humbled himself and became found in the

form of Christ. And he was found in the form of Christ. And he was found in the form of Christ. And he humbled himself to obedience unto the Father, and humbled himself in that obedience unto the Father, even to the point of death on a cross, the most vile and heinous and corrupt death that could be died. And then verses nine through 11, he allowed God to raise him up. He

allowed the Father to raise him up. The Father exalted him. The Father has seated him at a place where eventually everyone will give him glory. Everyone will. And that mind is to be in us. In other words, we're not to seek our own glory. We're not to seek our own glory. We're not to seek the things that are... Now, follow me on this. We're not to seek the things that are the best for

us. We're to seek what is best for him. And then sometimes that may not be what we think is best for us. And so you see, there's a struggle. But if I know who I am, I'm his bond slave. I don't have any rights. Whatever he wants is what I want. I'm set apart unto him, and I'm in him, so I have no worry. So wherever you want me, whatever you want me to do, that's what I want to do. And that's

part of this development of the mind of Christ, of having the mind of Christ. Now, as we look at this, I want you to... Pause for a minute and reflect on the fact that if I am doing that, Lord, I want to do that. And if I'm doing that, if I'm realizing who I am, and what I am, and where I am, and everything in chapter one that goes on with that, for me to live as Christ, to die as gain, whatever's necessary, Lord, do it in my life. I want to follow you. I want to be other-centered in this mind of Christ.

I want to do the right things with the right motives, and have the right attitude about it, so that it ends up right. All of these things that we've looked at so far. If I am doing that, then my life should be... Should be different from the lives that I am around in the world. Is it? Is my life any different? You see, most of us may feel like, well, I don't do anything. I mean, I get up,

and I go to work, and I come home, and I go to bed. I don't do anything. If you have a family, you get up, and you're around that family. Even if the family's getting ready to go off to school, and go off to work, that's one sphere of reference. That's one sphere of ministry opportunity for you. You go off to work. Well, maybe you stop and pick somebody up, or somebody

picks you up, and you're part of a carpool. That's another sphere of ministry for you. You go to work, and maybe there's a group of you that gather around the time clock, or around a certain office before work starts, and you spend 10 or 15 minutes just kind of, you know, chewing. That's a sphere of ministry for you. You have a break, and you go on break with different people. You work with

different people. You go to lunch with different people. Those are spheres of ministry in what you call your boring life, your boring day. If you are having the mind of Christ, if you know who you are, and what you are, and where you are, if you're saying to the Lord, whatever's necessary for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, I want to have the mind of Christ, and be this way, Lord. If I'm really doing that, then you should be different from those that you

are around in the world where you are. Are you? Is my life any different, or am I just doing what I'm doing because I'm following the crowd? Is my life any different, or am I just doing what I'm doing because everybody's doing it? I read an article this week in one of my textbooks for school. It's an article by Jack Griffin, who either used to write or still does write for

the Chicago Sun-Times, and it's called, It's Okay, Son. Everybody Does It. And he writes, When Johnny was six years old, he was with his father when they were caught speeding. His father handed the officer a $20 bill with his driver's license. It's okay, son, his father said as they drove off. Everybody does it. When he was eight, he was president of the family council, presided

over by Uncle George on the surest means to shave points off the income tax return. It's okay, kid, his uncle said. Everybody does it. When he was nine, his mother took him to his first theater production. The box office man couldn't find any seats until his mother discovered an extra $5 in her purse. It's okay, son, she said. Everybody does it. When he was 12, he broke his glasses on

the way to school. His Aunt Francine persuaded the insurance company that they had been lost, and they collected $75. It's okay, kid, she said. Everybody does it. When he was 15, he made right guard on the high school football team. His coach showed him how to block and at the same time grabbed the opposing end by the shirt so the official couldn't see it. It's okay, kid, the coach said. Everybody does it. When he was 16, he took his first summer job at

the supermarket. His assignment was to put the overripe strawberries in the bottom of the boxes and the good ones on the top where they wouldn't show. It's okay, kid, the manager said. Everybody does it. When he was 18, Johnny and a neighbor applied for a college scholarship. Johnny was a marginal student. His neighbor was in the upper three percentile. He was a college student, and

he was in the upper three percentile of the class, but he couldn't play right guard. Johnny got the scholarship. It's okay, son, his parents said. Everybody does it. When he was 19, he was approached by an upperclassman who offered to test dancers for $50. It's okay, kid, he said. Everybody does it. Johnny was caught cheating and sent home in disgrace. How could you do this to your mother

and me, his father said. You never learned anything like this at home. His aunt and uncle were also shocked. If there's one thing the adult world can't stand, it's a kid who cheats. Is your life any different, or do you do what you do? It's okay, son, his parents said. Everybody does it. When he was 18, Johnny and a neighbor applied for a college scholarship. Johnny was caught cheating and

Well, verse 12 starts off by saying, therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It starts off with therefore, verse 12. Therefore, therefore, in the light of what? Well, therefore, in the

light of everything that's just gone. Previous to what you'd read. So in the first 11 verses, having the mind of Christ. Therefore, if you're desiring to have the mind of Christ, if you're wanting to do this, then he says, as you have always obeyed, verse 12, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence,

but now much more in my absence. These Philippians evidently were fairly quick to grab and believe the word of God. Remember the story in Acts where Paul comes to Philippi and finds Lydia at the river along with some other women who come there to pray. There weren't enough Jewish males evidently in that area to have a synagogue because they didn't have one. And so Paul began to share with Lydia and

these women and they believed. They received the gospel and accepted it. And others began to believe so much so that it disrupted the commerce there at Philippi. And Paul was accused, Paul and Silas were accused of seeking to undermine their efforts there. And they were beaten. And thrown in jail. The jailer finally comes to believe and his family accepts Christ. And so

there's a group there that evidently grabbed onto the gospel fairly quickly. They believed fairly quickly. And they were following Paul's example. And as you see Paul's heart here, he's desiring to go back there. But for some reason, God's not allowing him to go back. And so Paul says, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence. Paul's calling them

to be obedient to God's word. We're going to have the mind of Christ. Therefore, continue to follow the word, not simply a person. There's one thing we're in danger of as Christians in this age. It's following a personality or following a ministry instead of following the Lord. We're in danger of doing things because so-and-so does it or because that church does it instead of really seeking to be obedient to God and his word.

You remember when we talked about the guy who was asked, well, what do you believe? He said, well, I believe what my church believes. And they said, well, what does your church believe? And he said, well, they believe what they believe. And he said, well, they believe what they believe. And he said, well, they believe what they believe. And he said, well, what is it that you and your church

believe? And he said the same thing. He couldn't articulate his faith. He didn't know really what he believed. He just was associating himself with a church body, with a personality. And it's often too easy to do. It's often too easy to think, well, you know, something's coming down. I wonder what Pastor Chuck thinks or something's coming down. I wonder what Pastor Mark thinks. It doesn't

make any difference. What does God think? What does God want us to do in a particular circumstance? The children of Israel were following Moses through the wilderness. And they got to a point, a place of disobedience, which they found themselves often in. And God sent snakes among them. And the snakes were biting them and many were dying. And they came to Moses and

they cried out to him for help. And Moses appealed to God. And finally, Moses says, okay, take some brass and fashion a serpent out of it and put it on top of this long pole so that everybody in the camp couldn't see it. And tell them that as they look under that brass serpent on top of this pole, they'll be saved. And it says that they did that. They fashioned this brass snake and they

put it up there and they went out to about the camp, telling the people to do this. And as the people turned and looked at that brass serpent that had been elevated on that pole, they indeed were saved. And Jesus mentioned this later, that this, that was a type of what was coming, the redemption that was coming as the son of man would be lifted up on the cross. And that all who looked to him in the same way that the children of Israel looked to that brass serpent would be saved. Jesus related that to a type of the crucifixion.

But what did the children of Israel do after God delivered them from that place? Well, they took that brass snake and they boxed it up and they took it with them. And finally got to find a place in the tabernacle. And it doesn't tell us specifically what they did, but evidently they were making it a point of worship. You know, they'd get that thing out every now and then,

maybe more now than then. And they would do something in some kind of worship. And they were looking to that brass snake and actually worshiping that brass snake because it had been instrumental in their salvation from the snakes in the wilderness. And finally, they had to take that thing and break it. And they called it Nahushtan. It's just simply a thing of brass.

Don't look under it, look under God, look under the Lord. And how guilty we can be, all of us, of looking for our strength from somebody instead of from the Lord. Now, granted, this is flesh and blood people, and we'll get to what we should be doing in our ministry to one another. But we, instead of looking for that ministry from people, need to be, looking at how we can minister to them, drawing our strength from the Lord, not from other people.

And Paul is saying, hey, as you've been obedient in my presence, now much more in my absence. I'm not going to get to be with you, but you are not worshipers of Paul. You're followers of Jesus Christ. And I want to encourage you this morning, listen to your tapes, listen to the Bible on tape, spend time with the Lord, and begin to listen for his voice speaking to you, not the voice of some man, not the voice of some pastor in some church somewhere, so that you become, dependent upon them. What if God moves you or moves me? Well, then what? And Paul knew that.

And so he's encouraging them. If you want to have the mind of Christ, your focus is going to be on the Lord. Your focus is going to be on the Lord, not on just following after me. J. Brennan McGee in his commentary says, having the mind of Christ, listen, having the mind of Christ is not something which can be imitated. It can only be imparted. It is the work of the spirit of God within us.

Now, when Paul went to the different churches, when he went to Thessalonica, when we were studying Paul, Paul commended the Thessalonians because they imitated him. When Paul went to Thessalonica, he says, you guys followed us and became obedient under the same discipline, really, that Paul was doing in his worship and study of the Lord. They were followers of Paul, imitating him. But, you know, and that's as a discipler, when we disciple people, when somebody comes alongside and are saved and you kind of walk with them, they're learning to imitate you. They're learning

to walk as you walked. But there needs to be, a realization that they can't do it all by just imitating you. You see, having the mind of Christ, you can't, you can't follow anybody in that. I mean, you can see somebody who has the mind of Christ and you can say, boy, I want to do that. I want to be that kind of a servant. I want to minister to people and, and help bring people to Christ and all, but you can't just imitate it.

It's something that's imparted to you through the Holy Spirit. It's something that's been planted in you. You see, when you came to Jesus Christ, when you came to that point of accepting Christ as your savior, whatever the terminology is you want to use, you can't do that. You can't use. When you were born again, when you asked Jesus into your heart, when you received Christ,

when you decided to follow Jesus, when you came to the cross, whatever your terminology, and you said, yes, Lord, I'm a sinner. I agree with you that I have sinned. Forgive me based on the shed blood of your son on the cross and forgive my sins and give me new life. God did that. And he sent into your life, the Holy Spirit, who's the third person of the Godhead,

who is God, who has the mind of Christ. So the mind of Christ is in you as a believer. It has been given to you as in the person of the Holy Spirit. You see, so it's not something that can just be imitated. It's something that has to be imparted. Okay. Well, knowing that now, what does it mean here where he says now, as a result of that, work out your own salvation with fear and

trembling. What does that mean? What does that mean? Well, let me give you some things that it doesn't mean. You see, this is a, this is a difficult text. One of the difficult texts in scripture because people look at it and they associate it to mean all kinds of things. And it's because they don't look at the text in its context. They don't look at it in, what the overall setting is, as you've been doing, as we've been going through Philippians

one and two, you know what the context is. You know what the setting is. There's a problem in Philippi. They have a problem with learning to rejoice in the Lord because they're having a problem with each other. They're having some conflicts with each other. And you know that. So that's where this verse is sitting in this context. You see, too often people go, God,

speak to me. And they go flip point. Also Jeroboam, son of Nebat, rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zereda. And his mother was a widow named Zerua. And you go, what are you saying to me, God? You know, I don't know what you're saying to me. Speak again, Lord, your servant listens. And you go, the afterbirth from the womb and the children she

bears. I still don't know what you're saying, God, you know, and we can get all screwed up doing that because God never meant for us to do that with the Bible, with his word. He wrote his word very logically, imparted it to us very logically so that as we sit and study through it, it fits and it means it makes sense. We have to look at it in context. Work out your own salvation with fear

and trembling. What does that mean? Well, let me tell you what it does not mean. And one of the reasons it does not mean that is because somebody has just ripped that verse out and said it over here and it says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And so they've interpreted interpreted it to mean work for your salvation. In other words, you don't know if you're saved

or not. There's Jesus and he's work for that. And so you're going to work for that and do good until the time that you die and you stand before the Lord and then you find out whether you won or lost, you know, whether you're in or out. That's not what it means. That's not what it says. It's not what it's dealing with or what it's relating to. It has nothing to do with working for your

salvation. Your salvation is affected by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, Ephesians 2. It's by grace that you have been saved through faith. That not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works so that no man can boast. If you could work for your salvation and earn it and else couldn't, you could say, I made it and you didn't. You'd be boasting in that. That's not what

it says. It doesn't say work for your salvation. Some look at this and they go, well, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling means to work at your salvation as if this is dependent upon your eternal life. You're saved now. You've received Christ and you've made it. You're saved, but you've got to work at it because if you don't work at it hard enough, long enough, you might

lose it somewhere along the line. You know, Jesus is going by and you missed him and you're out, no longer saved. So you have to work at your salvation to maintain it, to keep it. And that's it doesn't mean that that's not what the context implies. Romans chapter three, verses 21 through 24 tells us that the deeds of the law do not justify us, but righteousness comes by grace.

So this has nothing to do with obtaining your salvation or maintaining your salvation has nothing to do with that. This is a command in the Greek. It's a verb tense that indicates a continuing process. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. The word workout means to bring something to fulfillment or to completion, to bring something to fulfillment

or to completion. The mind of Christ was imparted to you at salvation in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is resident in you. He has the mind of Christ. It's in you, but you have this conflict that you and I continue to have with our flesh. This flesh is still has the seed of sin in it because it still gets old and dies, which is the result of sin. And so there's this conflict, this

war that's between us and our flesh. And so there's this conflict, this war that's between us and our flesh and the Spirit. And the flesh wants what it wants when it wants it. And the Spirit's saying, uh-uh. And so you have a conflict. There's a constant warring. It's not going to get easier just because you came to Christ. It's going to get harder. Now you know more. And you realize it's a

struggle and you realize it's a fight, but he's equipped you with everything you need to win the battle. We just have to realize that there's a struggle going on. Work out, bring to fulfillment or completion. Paul's commanding believers, commanding us as believers to continue on with great diligence and with great faith. And so we're going to continue to work out our salvation.

Great effort all the time, continually working out, literally, if you follow me, what's been planted within. The Holy Spirit is there and he is there with the mind of Christ. And as we've read in other places, he has gifted you. He has gifted you with spiritual gifts. Listen, the Holy Spirit we find in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is the giver of the gifts. He's the author of the gifts.

And he is in you. So he has a gift that he has them all. I mean, if you want to be realistic, the Holy Spirit in you has all the gifts. He can use any gift in you he wants to use. But according to the scripture, there is evidently at least one specific gift he wants to use in you, work out through you for the sake of others. That's what always what the gifts of

the Spirit are for, is for the benefit of the body of Christ. And he has at least one gift that he wants to work out of you. You see, nobody can sit here and feel like I'm not worthy. I'm worthless. I'm nothing. You see, there's a difference between humility and feigned humility. We're to have the mind of Christ, which is a mind of humility, which humbles ourselves and realizes we have no

we surrender those to the Father and God is equipping us and he'll exalt us and he'll lift us up. And we see ourselves as nothing. We're not striving to be anything significant in our own eyes. That's a humility before God. There's a feigned humility that's really a self-centeredness that says to others, oh, I'm nothing. I'm worthless. I can't do anything. I don't do anything. I'll

never be anything. I'm hopeless. And in essence, what we want when we say that is a pat on the back and somebody to say, oh, yes, you are. You're okay. You're fine. You're doing good. You're worth something. You're worth something to me. That's a feigned humility. And as worthless as a person may feel in that, they're never going to find fulfillment by somebody else patting them on the back saying, oh, you're really worth something.

You're great. You're all right. It's got to be found again in who you are and what you are and where you are in Christ. And as a bond slave of Christ, he has put his Holy Spirit in you, who is the author of the gifts, who wants to work through you a specific gift that he's designed just for you. That's why he set you apart unto himself. He wants to work that out in you so that you can minister it to somebody else and bless somebody

else. The longer you and I sit and go, oh, I'm worthless or I'm not worth anything, or the longer we go on about our own little pursuits without considering the Lord, the longer it is before that particular gift is ministered in the body. You want to know what makes a healthy body when things are really happening and functioning in a church fellowship? It's when people realize that and they seek to go before the Lord and let God show them what that gift is and then seek to minister it within a fellowship.

The amount of programs people leave because they say, you know, they didn't have this or they didn't have that program. I wasn't meeting my need. Well, were you meeting the needs of those that were there as well? I asked first service if anybody remembers having erector sets. Do they do that anymore? I don't think they make erector sets anymore. So we, Legos, do they make, still make

erector sets? Well, good. Well, you find it more in Legos now, I guess, where you got the little parts that you put this thing together, you know, and that's over here and this little wheel over there and you turn a little wheel and the thing, you know, does whatever it does. And if you leave one little part off the Lego, you can turn that wheel all you want and the thing will just sit missing. Well, that's what the body of Christ is all about, you see. And as we're seeking the Lord

and seeking to minister as he has gifted us, the parts work and it's beautiful. It functions well. But when one of us sits there and goes, that's a good study, you know, and you go right back out into life and do the same things that you were doing before and Christ is not shining through you and you're not praying for those little spheres of ministry where you affect those things daily and God, how can you use me there? And I pray for those people there that I work with, my family, the people in the carpool, the people.

Then you're like that missing piece and the thing doesn't function. And so this is what we're charged with here. This is what this means. It means that we are to continually see ourselves really as miners that are working out, that are seeking to mine out the giftedness, the nuggets that God has placed in our lives in the person of his Holy Spirit. We're seeking to get ourselves

out of the way and let him work through us. He has gifted you for others and this is going to be an intense commitment, but it needs to be. It's going to involve training like an athlete. It's going to take some commitment to do that. You know, it's coming into fall season and it seems like in the fall, I always have this desire to get back into some kind of an exercise routine,

some kind of an exercise program. Got to do it. And I'll do strange things, you know, to get into an exercise, but it's part of training. So I've got to do it. You know, you get up when there's no birds singing and you go outside and do weird things running around the block, you know, and all that stuff, just trying to get into shape. And it's amazing what we'll do

there. But that same kind of effort, you know, it's going to take some commitment to do that. It's got to be there as we're seeking to mine these things out of our lives, to mine this character of God out into our lives. We have to, we have to, as Romans 12 says, we have to be transforming our minds, not just conforming to the ways of the world, but seeking the Lord in his word and allowing him to transform us into the thinking of what he's thinking, not of what everybody else is thinking. If you can tell the latest jokes that have all the foul stuff in it,

but you can't remember a verse of scripture, if I'd ask you for one, you're out of balance. If you know all about the people in your little sphere, as far as what's going on with who and who's sleeping with who, but you don't know how to tell somebody about Jesus, you're out of balance. And we need to allow our minds to be being transformed. And that takes some effort. And

we need to commit ourselves to that effort. Missionary in times past, C.T. Studd, while on a missionary journey with one of his associates, wherever they were ministering, they were as cold and they were freezing. And the associate was trying to keep himself warm. And he looked up and he noticed C.T. Studd was pacing. And he asked him, what are you doing? You know, I mean,

it's cold. Why are you up and moving around? And C.T. Studd replied, I felt that something was wrong in my relationship with the Lord. So I'm reading the entire New Testament to check all of God's commands to me in case I've unwittingly violated any of them. I have problems putting the tape in the thing that goes clicky, you know, and just listening. And here's a guy who's so committed

to being obedient to the Lord, to following the Lord, that he feels like his relationship with God. And so he spends the night freezing and not sleeping, going through the New Testament to look all the commands over that are to believers to see if there's any way he could have violated one of them. I mean, there's a mind that's being transformed. Am I like that? Heavens, no. But I

don't excuse myself in that. I want to be like that. I want you to see two aspects in this idea of working, working out your own salvation. I want you to see two aspects in this, quickly. First, it implies working out in our daily lives the conduct that God has put there. Working out in our daily lives the attitude that's there in the person of the Holy Spirit.

And that comes, Romans 6, 19 tells us that, I've read that. But have you ever spent time thinking about that, what that means? What do your body parts do right now that entice and encourage sinfulness? What do they turn on and watch and your body parts are seeing and hearing that are enticing you to sin? Or what is it that your body part takes and ingests into your body that is not

good for it? Or what is it that, you know, what habit, what is it that the body part of your tongue is saying about other people and gossiping about others and seeking to run others down with? Well, in our daily lives, it's working this out, our salvation as the idea of God. Working it into our daily conduct, what God has put into our lives, that we surrender our instruments, our body parts to Him for His glory. So that now these hands are giving hands. I'm

seeking to minister to somebody else, to help somebody else. This tongue is not going to crucify them before somebody else, but it's going to commend them. It's going to seek to compliment and to do good unto as best as I can. Secondly, the second aspect of this work is to work towards the future moment when we see Christ. Let me say that again. It's to continue to work towards the

future. Continue to work out of you what the Holy Spirit has gifted you with in the area and the action of your transformation with the future in mind until you see Christ, that point of seeing Christ again. Jesus is coming soon. I believe that. And even if He doesn't come in my lifespan and I die, sometime I'm going to see Him face to face. But I believe that He's coming soon.

If I believe that, then I'm working now so that God will bring out of my life those things that are the character of Jesus and looking for that day. When I see Him, I'm going to answer for that. When I see Him, I'm going to answer for that. And that's what the second part of verse 12 is all about. With fear and trembling. With fear and trembling. The word fear there is the word phobos in the Greek, from which we get our word phobia. And the

word trembling is the word traumas, which means to shake. Or we get our English word, the tremors. So we're to do this in the light of our daily exchange with one another, looking towards the time of the coming of Christ when we'll stand before Him. Fear and trembling with a reverent attitude, realizing that we're accountable unto God with what He's given us, with what He's put into us. Sin's not to be taken lightly anymore.

It takes effort to learn to rejoice in the Lord. It takes effort to have the mind of Christ. It takes effort to work these things out. But there's an accountability to God with those things. You see, you've been given these gifts for others' sake, to minister to others. How are you doing with that? You and I will stand before God. You and I will stand before God. You and I will stand

before God and be accountable to Him for that. Hold your finger here quickly and go back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Quickly, back to your left. Just a few pages. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Listen as I begin reading at verse 1. 1 Corinthians 3. Paul says, Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly, mere infants in Christ. I gave

you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready yet for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worthy? Worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? See, he's dealing with relationships here. Worldliness among them because there's jealousy and because there's quarreling. He says, are you not acting

like mere men? Verse 4. For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not mere men? What after all is Apollos and what is Paul? The same thing he's saying here to the Philippians. He's not following after men. They're only servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each one each task. I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God

made it grow. So now, I'm going to water it. I'm going to water it. I'm going to water it. I'm going to water it. I'm going to water it. I'm going to water it. I'm going to water it. I'm going to neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own

labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold or silver or costly stones,

wood, hay, or stubble, his work will be shown for what it is. Now, one thing I want you to notice is everybody's building something. Christ is a foundation that's been laid. In other words, you and I have come to a point where we've heard about Jesus and we've said yes to him, for the most part here, probably. Okay, that's the foundation that's been laid. Now, you are building on that

foundation, and by being idle, you're still building. It doesn't say those who are building and those who are not building. Everybody's building something, and just idleness is building, probably wood, hay, and stubble, you see. We can't just be idle. You have been gifted by the Holy Spirit. He has set in you the mind of Christ. He has set in you these nuggets that he wants you

to work out, that he wants you to use in ministering to others, this other-centeredness to encourage them, to draw them to Christ and help them walk in the Lord. And depending on how you are using that is what he's talking about here, is how you are building on that foundation that's been laid in Christ. Now, he says his work will be shown, verse 13, for what it is, because the day will bring it to light. And the day is capitalized, it means the day of the Lord, and that encompasses everything from the time of the rapture, when the church is removed, until the time of the second coming, and finally, even the great white throne judgment. So, this is involved in, right after the church

is taken up, right after the church is raptured out, we'll stand before Christ at what's called the bema seat, or the judgment seat, to receive rewards from him. Our salvation is not in question. It's the rewards that you will be given for what you have done in this life, following, receiving Christ, following the foundation that's been laid. What have you built on it in your life? He says

that day will prove it. If any man, let's see, it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. Verse 14, if what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it's burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through flames. So, it's talking about whatever you've done in this life, specifically how you have worked out that salvation, worked out that that

God has implanted in you to minister to the lives of others. Those are the things that we're going to be held accountable to God for, and Jesus talking about the parable of the talents and all this, this is what he's indicating. This is what he's talking about. We are accountable to God, so we need to be working that out with a fear and a trembling. We're not going to quit here, so hang

with me. As of verse 12, where all there were, we'd be in trouble. I don't know about you, but I'd be in trouble. I'd look at it and go, it's hopeless, Lord. I've been trying, and I still fall, and I still stumble, and I want to do that, and I want to have the mind of Christ, and I want to rejoice in the circumstances, no matter how bad they are, but I still find myself falling short. I want my

instruments yielded to you as instruments of righteousness, but I still find this mouth saying stupid things that I don't like it to say, and I still find myself putting in front of my eyes things that I shouldn't watch. Help me, Lord. That's where verse 12 goes. Verse 13 comes in in Philippians chapter 2. He says, If you notice, between verses 12 and 13 is a comma. It's all one verse.

So those who have ripped out, worked out your own salvation and tried to apply it to something else have not finished reading the verse. For it's God who works in you. It's God who works in you to will and to act according to his purpose, according to his good pleasure. Always the balance in scripture. God has done, therefore we can do. God calls us to be servants, but he equips us and gifts us and empowers us to do that with his

Holy Spirit. God calls us to obedience, and then he affects that obedience in us. God calls us to holiness, and then he affects that holiness within us. Here we look that he's the one working. As we obediently respond to his command in verse 12, as we seek to say this morning, before you leave here, God, I want to do that. I'm going to be obedient to you. I want to work this out in my own life.

You've gifted me, and I'm purposing God to just submit to you. I'm going to do that. I'm going to study your word, to see these groups now as opportunities for you to work through me in. God, do that. He's working. He's working, and he's willing. He's willing. That's the exciting thing. For God who works in you is both willing and wanting. He both to will and to act according

to his good purpose. He wants to do it. When you say, Lord, I want to work this out, God, help me. He's going, all right, I've been doing it. I've been working it out. I'm going to continue to work it out in you. I just want you to get out of the way. He's willing to do it. Getting back to submitting your body parts to Christ, when you say, God, I'm going to start getting up early,

and I'm going to start spending time with you, and that alarm goes off, and your body parts go, I'm not willing. Not this morning. Finally, you go, I got to do it. I got to do it. You swing your legs off the side of the bed, and those body parts are the first ones that got to work. They stand up, but your eyes are still refusing. Your eyes refuse to work. Not submitted under

righteousness. Not this morning. You hit the wall. Then they're open. You run into the wall. You don't want to hit any more walls. Your eyes are open, and you begin to function. You've gradually been bringing your body into a willingness to do the work. Before, I really wasn't willing. God's willing. He not only is working, but he wants to work. Why in the world does God want to take us and all the

sludge that's in us? You know all the corruption that's in you. I know the corruption that's still in me. God wants to take us, and he wants to stick his hands in that goop, and he wants to pull it out of you. He wants to grab that razor blade out of your hand, so you don't hurt yourself. Why in the world does he want to? He's working, and he wants to work. Why? According to

his good purpose. Literally, in the behalf of himself. Why is he doing the work? It's for his pleasure, because he knows what he wants you to be, and he can make you that. He knows what the best service you'll be for him, and he wants to make you that, and he can do it for his pleasure. Revelation 4.11. You and I are made for God's pleasure. If we continue to walk around here ignoring and going

off after our own way, you are going to continue to hit walls, continue to be frustrated, continue to be anxious, continue to have areas of depression in your life that you can't answer, because you don't know who you are, and what you are, and where you are. It's because you're not working at bringing these things out, realizing that as you do that, he's already at work handing them to you, saying, here, here, here, here, you know, take this, do it. As you begin to do, as you just begin to realize that, and you go off to work tomorrow, you're going to see work in a whole different light. As we get into the rest of this in verses 14 through 18, you're going to see the difference that it makes, and you don't have to have all the things

memorized. You just got to live as unto him, and you find a tremendous light that's coming forth from you, and people will be drawn to you. It's God that's doing the work. He wants you to work, but he's already doing the work. Let's stand together. Griffith Thomas writes pertaining to the God who is at work in us. He says, This is our anchor, that God made us,

that God knew our constitution, that God knew our environment, that God knew our temptations, the temptations that would assail, yet God redeemed us to himself and made us his own by the blood of Christ. Now, if God is a being of perfect benevolence, he cannot have done so much without assuming to himself the responsibility of realizing that the object of our tears and the longing and the prayers which he has put by his own hand within our nature. Therefore, we must throw back on him the responsibility of making us blameless, harmless, and unrebukable before him. Griffith Thomas is saying that God who made us knows us. He knows

our frame, and yet he redeemed us. He saved us anyhow, and he is therefore assuming the responsibility of making us into what he wants us to be, and that's what we're looking at in Philippians chapter 2. That's what we're looking at in rejoicing and having the mind of Christ. I'm going to ask the elders and deacons to come down front, if you would. We haven't done this

for a while. We did it for service, just to be available to you for prayer. Maybe there's an area in your life and you're in a place where you're in a place where you're in a place where you're struggling with it, and you see that this is something that's necessary for you to be doing. You've neglected that, and you've had a gnawing feeling that you should be back in fellowship for some reason, but you realize a weakness when it comes to really seeking to mine out what God has planted in your life, really letting the Spirit of God minister through you to those in the body of Christ and work through you wherever you are. Maybe you'd just like somebody to pray with you

for that. We're going to have an open opportunity for you to come down front as we close, and maybe you just want to kneel down and pray. Kneel at the altar and just pray. That's fine. Maybe there's an area in your life where you just need prayer for. There's a sin, there's a habit, there's something that has you bound, and you just need some accountability, some prayerful accountability, somebody that'll pray with you

for that. The brothers are down front. Maybe there's an area in your life where you are really feeling an emptiness or a forsakenness, where you feel like God has rejected you or has turned his back on you, and you just need some, just a prayerful touch so that the brothers can pray with you and help you. I'll prayerfully draw your focus back to the fact that God loves you and he's here for you today.

Maybe there's an area in your life where you need prayer for healing. You have some kind of sickness or there's some kind of tumor that's growing and you're aware of it, or you just have a headache this morning. You need prayer for the headache. The brothers are available to you to pray with you as we close. Don't walk out of here without surrendering whatever it is to the Lord.

Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you that not only have you given us the example of what the mind of Christ is all about, but you've set within our hearts, your spirit. You desire to work that out in our lives, Lord, as we're just willing to begin the steps, to take the steps. Father, I pray that we'll do that today. I pray for those who are here and

who are in turmoil. They haven't been able to see the surface for a long time. They've been entangled and ensnared in sin or in a problem so much that they've not been able to see your hand and your graciousness. Father, I pray that you would break away the scales and let them see you this morning. Maybe there's somebody here who, like that three-year-old child, is hanging on to something

that they don't want to see. I pray that you would lift them up and lift them up. Amen. let go of. Maybe there's somebody here who is looking to someone else, to a pastor or to another leader or to someone for comfort or assurance rather than looking to you. Father, I pray that if it's necessary, you'd even take their arm and pry the fingers loose that they might find

themselves dependent upon you. You're doing it in love. You know what's needed. You know what they can become. Lord, move among your people. Make us a strong fellowship, a community of believers who loves one another. In spite of everything else, we'll love one another. It's in Jesus' name that we ask.

To be the strength.