Philippians 30:12-30 Your Work and Gods Work

Welcome to Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.

You are listening to a message by Elder Rob Knold from a passage in Philippians. If you would like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com,

or you can find us on Facebook. Here's Rob Knold. Good morning.

Welcome to Recast. I'm Rob Knold. I'm an elder here at Recast, and it's my privilege to preach to you this morning.

Today is Palm Sunday. I hope you knew that. This is the day we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

And, of course, next week is Easter. So, this morning, I have a few announcements, and then

I'd like to introduce the sermon and introduce worship this morning to you. First of all, on announcements,

I hope you received a worship folder on your way in this morning. This has some announcements inside here.

I encourage you to read that if you'd like to know what's going on here at Recast Church. Inside this worship folder, you'll find a connection card, and this connection card is a great way to get connected here at Recast.

You can check different boxes to learn about different ministries here. You can put down prayer requests and communicate.

We do pray for all the prayer requests put down on here on a weekly basis. And also, if you fill this out and turn it in, you'll receive a weekly email, and that's just a good way to stay connected with what's going on.

You can also pick up a Recast mug. If it's your first time here, we encourage you to drop this in the black box back here and pick up a

Recast, red Recast travel mug. That's our gift to you this morning. And finally, there's an envelope here to give.

We do not pass an envelope. We want your giving to be between you and God. So if you're a regular attender and God leads you to give, we just encourage you to use this envelope and, again, the black offering box on the table back here.

Well, I'm excited this morning to speak to you about Philippians chapter 2. And so I'm going to just do a brief introduction to that.

The sermon is titled Our Work and God's Work. Our Work and God's Work.

So what is our work and what is God's work? We're going to see that Paul directs the

Philippians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. For it is

God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

In other words, we're being directed to labor or work hard, to work diligently, to put in effort to grow in our faith.

But at the same time, it's really empowered by Almighty God working in us.

Another way to say this is the word sanctification. Who here has heard of the word sanctification before?

Pretty common. It's a theological term. But the word sanctify means to be made holy or set apart.

And so the word sanctification simply means the process of being made holy or set apart.

It's really a word that captures the whole process of growing as a Christian. How do we grow as a

Christian? And that's really a major theme that I'm going to be talking about this morning. It is a gradual process of God working in the life of the

Christian to eliminate sin and to grow in Christ's likeness. So this morning,

I'd like to ask a question to all of us here today. How are you growing in your faith?

How are you growing in your faith? What are you doing right now that requires you to exercise faith?

Are you doing anything that you're not able to just accomplish in your own effort? Is there anything you're doing right now that requires faith in an

Almighty God? What are you doing right now to grow closer to God?

What are you doing? What steps are you taking to grow closer to God in your relationship with God? Another way to look at this, what circumstances are in your life right now?

What hardships, difficulties, maybe a trial that you're going through? What are you experiencing right now?

And how is that helping you grow in your faith? Sometimes the most difficult circumstances that we go through, as we look back on them, we have clarity and we see, wow, that was actually the time in my life when

I grew the most, when I was really struggling with that issue or that difficulty or that hardship.

God can use those circumstances. So I'd just like you to consider how you're growing in your faith, what

God might be placing in your life right now to help you grow in your faith with God. And I'd like you to contemplate those things as we read the text this morning and as we come to worship in just a minute here.

So at this point, let's turn in our Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, and we're going to read verses 12 to verse 30.

If you don't have a Bible, there's Bibles on the table back here, and you're welcome to grab one of those

Bibles and even keep it if you'd like a Bible. It's an ESV translation. It's on page 841 in that Bible, page 841.

This is Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 to 30, and I'll read. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or complaining, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith,

I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.

For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare, for they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. And I trust in the

Lord that shortly I myself will come also. I have thought it necessary to send to you

Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need.

For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed, because you heard that he was ill.

Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I am the more eager to send him therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.

So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men. For he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

Let's pray now as we prepare for worship. Heavenly Father, we do come before you.

As we consider this text, Lord, and as we prepare our hearts for worship, Lord, I do pray right now that you just help quiet our thoughts, and quiet our hearts, and help us not be distracted by just different things that went on this past week or this morning, but that you'd help us to just contemplate you,

God, an almighty God, an everlasting God, a loving God, a holy God.

And that, Father, as we consider what you've done for us, and,

Father, now as we consider our response to that, how should we act, how should we work, how should we honor you and serve you,

Father? I just pray that your spirit would move. I pray you'd help us to contemplate the words of these songs we're about to sing, and just sing them with joy and with a true heart, and just worship you in spirit and in truth this morning.

I pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. As we get started this morning,

I'm going to give you a little bit of background, some historical context for what's going on in Philippi at this time, as well as just a little bit of background on the preceding verses to set the stage for today's sermon.

So I'd like to start off... By the way, my name is Rob. I preach on occasion.

I'm one of the volunteer elders here, and it's really a privilege to preach this morning, and I'm really excited to do it.

I've been preaching through the book of Philippians, so if you've heard some of the previous messages, this is a continuation of that.

I'm preaching in Philippians 2, verse 12 now. But if you haven't, again, I want to give you a little background and context.

So the Philippians were a church, and let me give you some background on the city. Philippi was a city.

It's located in modern -day Greece, really close to Turkey, and this city was actually conquered by Philip, Alexander the

Great's dad, and that's the name Philippi comes from, Philip. So following that, the

Romans came and invaded and conquered this city, and Philippi became a Roman colony, and it was a significant colony.

It had the privileges of Roman citizenship. The citizens of the city were Roman citizens, which meant a lot to the culture there.

So this was a significant city in the Roman Empire, a really important city. One of the most interesting things about this location here in Philippi and the church there is that this was the entrance point of the gospel into Europe.

When Paul was making his first missionary journey, he traveled in, you may remember the stories in Acts about the

Macedonian man and calling Paul and Paul traveling into Europe. Philippi was that first destination, first stop in Europe.

So really when Paul preached in Philippi and Lydia was converted and the jailer and his family through some miraculous circumstances, you know,

Paul and Silas seeing in jail, and this small church was started in Philippi, this was really the first church in Europe.

And if you think about history and what came in Europe and the significant role it's played in church history, that's pretty amazing.

So this small little church was started by Paul and his traveling group there on his first missionary journey.

Paul then left and, as you know, made many more stops, other missionary journeys, started many churches, was persecuted severely.

Ten years have passed now, ten years have gone by, and Paul is now imprisoned. He's in prison, most likely in Rome.

And at this point in time, he is now writing back to the Philippians. And he's writing back to this church he started ten years ago, and he's writing back to encourage them.

And I think that's one of the most amazing things about this book, is here's Paul, he's a prisoner. He's chained to a guard, most likely, and under either house arrest or maybe within a prison cell, and he's writing this letter, and he's the one doing the encouraging.

He's the one saying, building them up and lifting them up, and he's the one that's imprisoned. So it's a pretty remarkable letter that Paul wrote.

And that's one of the reasons I love Philippians so much. So in the book of Philippians, a quick review, really to summarize the book to this point,

Paul is writing them to encourage them. He starts off in verse 3 of chapter 1. He just thanks God for the

Philippians. He's overflowing with a thankful heart. And he talks about how much he loves them in verses 7 and 8.

He has a strong affection. You can imagine this. He's almost like a father -child relationship.

He cares for these Philippians with a very deep affection. He loves them. And he talks about that in verses 7 and 8.

And that just overflows into a prayer. In verses 9 through 11, Paul just, he's writing this letter, probably dictating this letter, and it's being written down, and he just overflows into this prayer in verses 9 to 11.

And I just encourage you to read that prayer, and you could even repeat that prayer for others in your life.

It's an amazing way. You can actually pray Scripture verses for people. And verses 9 to 11 are a really powerful prayer that Paul prays for the

Philippians. Verses 12 to 26 of the Philippians chapter 1 is really Paul just saying, hey, here's the status.

Here's how things are going with me. You can imagine how he's doing that in a letter. And so, basically,

Paul tells them that he's been bold in declaring Christ and declaring the gospel. And here's the funny thing about the circumstance.

Here's Paul in the prison cell, chained to a guard, and people come and visit, and Paul is sharing the gospel over and over.

And guess what's happening? The guards are getting saved. These guards, you know, he's chained to them, but it's ironic because they're also chained to him.

Literally, they're chained to this gospel messenger. And so these guards can't escape it. And so before you know it, the whole prison guard is starting to come to Christ and is starting to believe.

And so this is the news that Paul shares with them in verses 12 and following. And I just think it's a neat story how that happens.

Paul is convinced. Here he's sitting in prison. He's facing a trial with Caesar and potentially death.

And yet Paul says some amazing things in chapter one. He says, let me look at it.

It's funny how the nerves get you, and sometimes you can't remember. He says in verse 21, for me to live is

Christ and to die is gain. You can't hurt Paul here, okay?

If you let him live, he's gonna live for Christ. He's gonna build up the body of Christ. He's gonna share the gospel.

He's gonna encourage other believers. But if you kill him, it's gain. Paul says, hey, I'm gonna go be with Christ.

That's even better. So you can't get me here. And so the authorities really had no way of really hurting

Paul, if you think about it. He declares for me to live is Christ and die is gain. And so Paul goes on to talk about how things are going with him.

And verse 27 shifts now. And verse 27 and following are significantly different.

Paul now shifts the focus to the Philippians. And he says, all right, Philippians, now let's talk about you.

How are things going with you? And he starts to encourage and exhort them in chapter one, verses 27 and following.

And he says, be tough. Live for Christ in the middle of persecution.

Essentially, that's what he's saying. He says, stand together. Be unified. In chapter two, verses one and two,

Paul exhorts them to unity. And this is a really important theme in this book. Then in verses three and four, he tells them how to be unified.

Verses three and four, very, very famous verses. Verses that I've memorized, and I'm afraid

I'm gonna misquote. But he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourself.

It's amazing how when we take our eyes off ourselves and we start to be humble and selfless and start to work and do things for others, suddenly there's a spirit of unity that is built up by that.

And so that's what the church is supposed to do. Be unified and that's empowered by being humble and selfless.

Paul then goes on to give really the best example for humility, and it's

Christ himself. If you look at verses six through 11 of chapter two, this is just preceding what we're gonna get into today.

This is the, I think, one of the most beautiful poems written in scripture, and it is just an illustration.

God himself descended and became a man, took on flesh, didn't just do that.

He took on, he lived in a poor area, lived a hard life, got killed, crucified unjustly, and really laid down his life as a sacrifice for us.

And so God exalted Christ to the highest place and gave him the name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. So it is an amazing picture of God humbling himself for us.

So this is the background that I wanted to give you as we dig into the passage today, chapter two verses 12 and 20, sorry, chapter two verses 12 and following.

So here, Paul begins by saying the word therefore. Therefore, in my translation, and another way to translate that would be so then.

So essentially, Paul is continuing the message. He says, okay, because of all this, because of the unity

I've exhorted you to, the humility and Christ's example, because of all that, now he's gonna go forward in the message.

So I wanted to give you that context. Therefore, he says, my beloved, again, reiterating

Paul's love and affection for the Philippians. He says, and going on, he says, as you have always obeyed.

So there's historical obedience, historical obedience here. He is commending them for as you've always obeyed.

Obeyed what? What do you think he's talking about? Roman law or Paul's whims or what kind of obedience?

Well, it's obedience to Christ. It's obedience to the word of God and to Christ's commands that Paul has shared previously.

So they've already been obeying, and Paul's exhorting them for that. He says, now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence.

Again, Paul was present at one point. He's now absent and he's saying, regardless of where I am,

I want you to be exhorted here. And then it gets into the meat of it.

This is what I really wanna focus on. What is he urging them to do? He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

I think this is a very important phrase and one that I wanna make sure we correctly interpret.

So I wanna dig into this more. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

What does that mean? Does it mean that we work and earn our salvation?

How does that reconcile with other parts of scripture? Maybe you're familiar with Ephesians where Paul tells the church in Ephesus, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves.

It's a gift of God. It's not by works so that no one can boast. So how can Paul say, work out your salvation here and say somewhere else, it is by grace you're saved through faith, not by works.

So we have to reconcile scripture and we have to dig in and understand that. So I think the key to understanding scripture is context.

What is the author trying to say? What is he saying before? What is he saying after? And let's understand the message and what's going on here.

And by the way, just a quick aside. This is for free. Free tip. It's not in my notes. Anytime you're reading the

Bible, anytime you're reading the Bible and you're stuck on something, you're confused, you're struggling, I just encourage you to look at context.

It is so important to understanding scripture. It's probably the most important Bible study tool is just read the flow of scripture, understand the author's point of view in the preceding and following verses, in the whole chapter, in the whole book.

Try to get into the author's mindset there. So let's do that. Let's look at this and essentially what we see is

Paul is explaining in the preceding verses how a church should live.

They should be unified. They should live in a humble way and he exhorts them into Christ's example to live in a humble way that way.

So essentially what he's saying is he's giving them a message to a

Christian believing community and he's not explaining the how of salvation as much as he's saying how saved people should live out their salvation.

So Paul here is explaining to believers and exhorting them and instructing them on how they should live out the salvation that they have.

So if you think about it from that context, I think another way that this verse could be summarized is Paul is really just saying to the believers there, he's saying continue in your obedience to Christ.

Continue in your obedience to Christ. So we're saved by faith, we're saved by grace through faith.

This is clear in scripture. But when we're saved, we're now called to obedience in Christ.

And so just wanted to clarify this. Paul is now exhorting them to continue on in obedience to Christ now that they're saved.

So what about the fear and trembling part? Maybe you picked up on that as we read through it. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Why does Paul say fear and trembling? Why should they be afraid? They're believers.

They're believers. What are they supposed to be afraid of? Maybe you're struggling with that as well. I'd like to remind us this morning, and this is maybe a little bit uncomfortable truth, but it's necessary to say.

I want to remind us all that our destination as sinners is hell.

There's a real hell that's been prepared. And that is what scripture teaches. And it teaches us that we've all sinned, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So there is not one person who's born in this world who is sinless. We all commit sin, and we all are really deserving of punishment and of hell.

And I think that there's a real sense of fear and trembling that we should have when we consider what we deserve and what we truly ought to get if it wasn't for Christ, if it wasn't for God.

This is our true condition. So without hope except for God. We have no hope without God.

But God reaches down into our darkness, and He rescues us. So I want to ask you an important question this morning.

How do you know you're saved? How do you know? I think this is an important thing to reflect on.

How can you know for sure that you will go to heaven? How can you know for sure?

Scripture tells us that a tree is known by its fruit. Jesus Himself said this.

He said, A good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit.

That's Matthew 7, 17. You can go look that up. That's Jesus Himself. Another place,

Jesus is quoted in the book of John. He says, You love God. These are my words.

You love God. That's great. But prove that by obedience. In the book of John, it says in chapter 14, verse 21,

So you love God. Good. Prove it. Show it. Demonstrate it.

That's the life of a believer. That's the Christian life. To obey God. I want to dwell on this for just a little longer and look at it one more way.

When you become a believer, there is a gift given to you. I hope you're aware of this.

The Holy Spirit is a gift that God places inside of us. And Paul says in 1

Corinthians 3, 16, he says very clearly, Don't you know you yourselves are

God's temple? God's Spirit lives inside of you. His Spirit lives inside of you.

So what does that Spirit do? What's the purpose of God's Spirit? Galatians 5 is,

I think, the best illustration of what the Spirit does in our lives. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It literally lists off all the characteristics that you should have as the

Spirit lives inside of you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

These are the characteristics that the Spirit of God works out in us. So I want to ask the question again.

Are you growing in these areas? Are these fruits of the Spirit showing up in your life? I think this is the best way to really assess your own life and say,

Am I a believer? Is Christ living inside of me through the Holy Spirit?

If you're answering yes, if you can look at areas of your life and say, Yep, I do see that growing. I see that change going on.

I just want to encourage you. That is great news and I hope you're encouraged and will continue to allow the

Spirit of God to work in your life. But if not,

I really think that you need to examine your own heart with fear and trembling. And this may be an uncomfortable moment for you, but is

God's Spirit in you? That's something between you and God. I can't answer that question for you this morning, but I would encourage you to examine your heart and really consider whether you've placed your faith and trust in God and whether His Spirit is in you and whether you're truly following and obeying

Christ. None of us is perfect. We've all got sin. So I'm not saying any of us is going to be sinless, but I'm talking about growth.

I'm talking about a pattern and where you're heading. And again, examine your hearts this morning.

True believers will bear good fruit. So that was just verse 12, first verse.

We've got a little ways to go this morning. Verse 13, in case there's any doubt about whose work it is in this work out your salvation.

Verse 13, Paul just follows that right up. Remember context is how we interpret this.

And Paul comes right in here and says, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

So it's God working in you. We see that very clearly stated here. Paul clarifies it. He doesn't leave any room for doubt.

God is the origin of our ability to obey Christ. It is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure, is how the

ESV says that. This is so humbling to me and at the same time it's so encouraging.

And I hope it's the same for you. I just want to explain that for a second. It's humbling because I know that I cannot obey on my own.

I need God working in me just to obey. That's pretty humbling, isn't it? But at the same time it's encouraging because I know that I can obey.

Why? Because it's God enabling me to obey. I mean that's a guarantee. That is a guarantee believer.

If you believe in God and God is working in you to obey, you can be confident not in your own ability but in God's ability to work through you.

The other thing I want to point out about this verse is there's two things going on here. Two aspects of God's work in you.

First, He causes you to want to do what

God wants. And second, He causes you to do the work that God wants.

Did you catch that? Let me read that again. God works in you both to will and to work.

So the will is you wanting to do it and the work is actually the doing of it.

And I think this is really amazing. God doesn't just work on your behavior. He's not just a behavior therapist getting you to manipulate you to do this or that.

He is a God who changes our desires. He changes our hearts from the inside out.

We sing a song here on occasion from the inside out and it's really describing how God gets a hold of our heart and begins to change our desires on the inside.

And I think this verse is illustrating that, not just illustrating, it's teaching that and explaining it.

I am very grateful for the way God works and changes my own desires. He molds you into a child of God that wants to follow and please

Him. Not just someone who has to do it and is compelled to do it because you're forced to, but because you want to.

I think that's very important. Quick illustration. I am a parent. I have three kids.

I love them all dearly. And I just want to talk about parenting for a second.

As a parent, I have become aware to the obvious fact that I cannot force my kids to obey me or to obey

God. All you parents in here, maybe you've discovered this truth. Hope you have. I mean,

I'm not saying you can't try. You can try to coerce them, force them to do things, and maybe it works in some instances and for a while.

But the reality is, and especially the older your kids get, I think it just becomes painfully true, you're going to run into this, that you cannot control their lives.

You cannot do it. You can't control their environment, their friends, their choices. In increasing measure, they're going to make more and more choices.

And that's a reality of parenting. The key here, though, the point that I'm getting at here is that you can influence them and you can influence their wants.

That, I think, is the key to parenting. You can influence what they desire, what they want. It's just such a beautiful picture.

It's exactly what God is doing in our hearts, right? And ultimately, what God, you hope and pray, will do in the heart of your child.

But as a parent, it's a little picture of what God's doing. As a parent, you're trying to influence and change their desires and trying to encourage them to do the things that you know are right and that you know are good and healthy for them to do.

So, I just thought that would be helpful to just put that picture in your mind. God is kind of like that heavenly

Father. Think of the prodigal son. The prodigal son is a wayward son that goes and squanders the wealth and, in terrible living, comes back.

But that father still loves him and that father's pursuing him. And that father runs out to him and embraces him and loves him.

The father is influencing his child. And I think that's the picture of our heavenly Father with us.

He desires for us to obey, but he doesn't force our obedience. He leads us and gives us the desires.

Just remember, kind of sum that up, when you're obeying God, when you are obeying God, it's really

God causing you both to want to obey and to ultimately obey.

It's really God behind all of that. And I think God ultimately gets the glory and the credit as a result.

That's what this passage is teaching. It is all God. He gets all the credit. Good. So now verse 14.

Paul has to get personal here. He gets a little bit personal. He says, Do everything without grumbling or disputing.

Paul is basically calling out the Philippians saying, Cut it out. Stop all the whining and complaining and grumbling and arguing and all that stuff.

Apparently, this was a sin issue at the church in Philippi. Discord. And actually, we see in chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, the fact that Paul is, already he's exhorted them, said,

Be unified. And then we see later in chapter 4, Paul literally says to two ladies in the church, he literally says,

Agree in the Lord. He's basically saying, he names them. He calls out their names in the letter and says, Basically, Cut out the fighting.

Agree in the Lord. So, they're clearly disputing and arguing was an issue in the Philippian church.

And, I'm sure that's not an issue here. We don't complain or argue or have any of those problems, do we?

No. Hopefully not. That'll be good news. But, just in case, there is an exhortation here and I think it's worth examining.

Paul, Paul is spending some time on it so I think we should as well. And then, he gets into the why in verse 15.

So that, you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish, in a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

This is an amazing picture. An amazing picture of, a picture of an extremely dark room, an extremely dark place, and bright shining lights, shining out.

They just stand out. They're impossible not to notice. That is how God's children should be.

We're to act in a way that's really contrary to, very different from, the environment we live in.

Have you noticed how twisted the world is? I don't think it's hard to notice, but I can illustrate it just briefly for us this morning.

It's interesting to me how, God creates things for good, and then, Satan and our own evil natures, sinful natures, twist things, and turn them bad.

You know, something as good as food, and I love food, but good, wholesome food, can turn into overeating, overindulgence, gluttony, and all kinds of problems.

Something like sex, God designed for good, you know, wholesome thing in marriage, and we turn it into adultery, things, problems, which are, there's things like incest, rape, abuse, terrible things we've done with that gift.

How about take just something like, like income, money, or something that you earn, I mean, that can be a good thing, but we turn it into hoarding, and materialism, and selfishness.

So we live in a world that essentially takes good, and turns it into bad, and we're to live in a way, in a manner that is a bright light, that's a shining example.

So in this case, Paul is saying specifically, shine as bright lights, and he's telling them specifically, don't complain or argue.

So I just want to apply this to our lives this morning, specifically this complaining and arguing thing.

I don't know how many of you like to write down verses, and post them around your house, but this is one of those verses my wife likes to write down, and post around the house in places, but it's a good one to do.

It's a good reminder. It's a good exhortation here. But what about you? Do you have a problem with complaining and arguing?

Do you find that you tend to complain about things? Do you have a complaining spirit? Maybe you tend to argue with your brother or sister, or something like that.

Maybe there's just, you have a tendency to complain, and be selfish, and have that perspective.

I just exhort you this morning to examine your own heart and your own life. And complaining and arguing should not be characteristics that we have as believers.

Verse 16 reminds us that we must hold fast to God's Word, the

Word of God. Don't stray away from the Gospel. Don't stray away from this book, the

Bible. There's a lot of error.

There's a lot of lies. There's a lot of beliefs that you can slide into, and get distracted by, and deceived by.

And I think this exhortation by Paul here in verse 16, to hold to the

Word of life is critical. My wife has read a book titled

Lies Women Believe. And it's an excellent book that really just highlights the wrong ways of thinking that in particular ladies can fall into.

But guess what, guys? We're not immune. And unfortunately, we believe in lies as well.

The truth is we're surrounded by all kinds of ways of thinking. And a lot of these things can be very deceptive.

I think of an example is this idea of universalism. It's a belief that many churches have that everyone goes to heaven.

Well, that's really convenient. That would be great. But that's not what the Bible teaches. You have to take all of these thoughts, all these ideas that are bouncing around, things you hear on TV, things you hear from friends, whatever, and take them back to Scripture, and really examine them, and say, is this right or is this not right?

And I think it is so critical that we cling to the Word of God, the Word of life, in doing that.

Verse 16 goes on to say, Seems like a strange statement.

I have to be honest, as I read through this and studied it, it troubled me. It was like, why is Paul talking about pride and why is he even bringing himself into this?

He's making this great exhortation to the Philippians, and then he says, Well, I think there's a couple of reasons and a couple of explanations here, and I want to explain this briefly.

First, when Paul talks about being proud or boasting, he's really boasting in what Christ is doing in them.

He's just stated that. It's really Christ's work, God's work in them, working in them, right, to will and to act.

So he's really boasting in what God does. He's really acknowledging the God and Savior who is making these changes in their lives.

But the second reason that I think Paul brings himself into the picture is his strong affection for the

Philippians. I mentioned earlier in the chapter, it starts off with just him pouring out his heart to them and talking about how he loves them with the affection of Christ Jesus himself.

Paul cares deeply for these people. And so he's writing them, and this is not some kind of duty or obligation.

Paul has to write them a letter because he hasn't written in a while, and he wants to encourage them, and he'd rather be hanging out in his prison cell doing something else.

No, he's writing them because he loves them. He's literally heart -wrenched. He is heartbroken for these people.

He longs for them to follow God and to live their lives as an ongoing testimony of what started.

So I think Paul sees himself just wrapped up with everything that goes on in Philippi. He is one with the

Philippians in heart. And so when he starts to talk about this, he can't help but bring himself into it.

And I think ultimately that Paul expects someday to rejoice with the

Philippians, ultimately rejoice with them in heaven together with Christ. And that is the eternal reward.

In fact, it goes on to say that in verses 17 and 18. And you can cheat and look down there if you want.

But basically, Paul talks about rejoicing with them in just a minute. And so I think this is really the boasting that Paul's talking about is really a type of rejoicing with them in heaven someday.

All right. So moving on to verses 17 and 18. Paul goes on in Philippians here in chapter 2, verses 17 and 18 by describing his own life like a drink offering poured out onto the

Philippians' sacrifice. So verses 17 and 18.

This is a very strange language that Paul's using. He says this, and I'll just read in verses 17 and 18.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon a sacrificial offering of your faith. What is he talking about here?

A drink offering poured out on them, on their sacrifice? What is this meaning? I think it's important that we get into the

Old Testament Levitical sacrificial system and understand what in the world Paul is talking about.

So just briefly, a quick history here. Numbers 28 describes this Levitical sacrifice that the priest did.

So he would go into the temple and there would be a sacrifice of a lamb in the morning and in the evening.

And there would also be a grain offering and a drink offering. The drink offering would actually be a cup of wine and it would get poured out.

And so what he's literally saying here is I am the drink offering and you are this lamb sacrifice and I'm being poured out on you.

And together, we are this sacrifice to God. This holy and pleasing and right sacrifice.

The suffering that I'm going through in my prison cell, the difficulty and hardship that I know you're going to go through, that I'm exhorting you to push through, this is a sacrifice to God.

This is a holy and pleasing thing that we can do together. And so I think it's a beautiful picture of a sacrifice.

It reminds me a lot of Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 and verse 1.

Maybe you're familiar with this verse in Romans where Paul essentially says, Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

A living sacrifice. So it's a very similar concept. Paul wrote to the Romans, that's the church in Rome, almost the same thing.

And so I think he's illustrating here a sacrifice that their lives are for God and in Romans he says,

Hey Romans, I want you to do the same thing. And I think it's appropriate for us to also consider the same thing.

What about us? What about you? Are you willing to lay your life down to be a living sacrifice?

Not necessarily a death sacrifice, but a living one. That's actually the hardest thing to do.

Isn't it? Sometimes I think it would be easier in a moment to lay your life down than it is to on an ongoing basis, day by day, living sacrifice.

Continue to serve, continue to labor, continue to push through whatever hardship you're facing and honor

God in that. The hard thing about a living sacrifice, I've heard it said, it's the problem is there that the sacrifice has a tendency to crawl off the altar.

That's the difficulty there. So if you're a living sacrifice, I encourage you to persevere through.

Paul wraps up verses 17 and 18 by talking about how he, Paul, is glad in all of this.

He's glad. The suffering, the living sacrifice, all this, he's glad and he rejoices with the

Philippians. So they too, he tells them, hey, you too, Philippians, you should be glad and rejoice with me. Be glad in the middle of persecution, in the middle of imprisonment, in the middle of hardship.

Yes, that's exactly what Paul's saying. It's a pretty amazing perspective. Suffering for the cause of Christ brought

Paul joy and gladness. I think he was, again, this illustration of a father and his kids.

It's that illustration. Paul was willing to go through all kinds of hardship because he just had this affection for essentially his spiritual kids in Philippi.

And he was in so much joy because they're still walking with Christ and he just wants to encourage them and exhort them, keep walking with Christ.

Verses 19 to 30, verses 19 to 30, are now going to translate over to Paul going into some personal details about two people, personal details about two people,

Timothy and Epaphroditus. These are the two guys that Paul now commends. And you may read this part of chapter two and you might think, well, what's the point here?

It's almost like Paul is just covering a bunch of details. He's talking about a bunch of nice things about these guys.

What's the message to us? What are we supposed to take from this? But I think there's some important stuff here.

And I really want to camp out on a couple of things. First of all, both of these guys serve as a great example of everything

Paul has been talking about. So everything I've just preached on and explained, here are two guys doing it.

They're living the life that Paul is encouraging the Philippians to live. First of all, let me show you Timothy in verse 20.

He holds up Timothy and says, here's a guy, he's selfless. He's primarily concerned for your welfare.

And I don't have anyone else like him. This guy is an excellent example and he's being held up as that to the

Philippians. It's a perfect illustration of what Paul talks about back in chapter two, verses three and four.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. That's exactly what

Timothy is doing here. Exactly what he's doing. Another example. Diligent servant of the gospel alongside

Paul. Timothy is exhorted and lifted up as a servant who has been alongside

Paul, working hard diligently for the cause of the gospel. Epaphroditus.

I mean, if you can just say his name, you're doing good. That's a tough one. I don't know anyone named Epaphroditus. Anybody met someone named

Epaphra? What would be short for Epaph? What do you call him? I don't know. But Epaphroditus is equally concerned and distressed for the

Philippians. And this is a really interesting guy. He actually is from Philippi, right? So he's one of the

Philippians. He came from there. They sent him to Rome to take care of Paul in prison.

So talk about a servant. This guy got the assignment of assignments. He gets to travel to Rome and go into the prison system and take care of a prisoner.

I'm sure that was not very glamorous. And he was doing probably a lot of the dirty work, a lot of the hard work, the taking care of the basic needs that Paul had.

Nothing glamorous here. Epaphroditus was willing to do that. I think that speaks of his character right there.

The interesting thing is Epaphroditus gets sick and he almost dies. So here's a guy who basically is willing to lay his life down.

He's probably working in very bad conditions, contracts some disease, gets sick, almost dies, and yet God spares his life.

So Paul holds him up as a great example. Secondly, I wanted to point out, so the first thing is these two guys are great examples.

The second thing is Paul is actually sending them back. He's sending them to the Philippian church.

And so Paul wants to commend them and lift them up as examples because he's now going to send them. Epaphroditus is actually going to carry the letter.

He is the letter courier. And so this guy who they sent to him, Paul says, well, now it's time for me to send him back.

He's got the letter in hand and he's going to you. So he's commending him as Epaphroditus goes back to the

Philippians. Timothy, he plans to send him soon, very soon. So Paul, again, is commending and endorsing both men who are going to go be with the

Philippians and encourage that church body. So Paul is, again, lifting them up and recommending them.

So I want to just dwell on one thing with this before we close and on Epaphroditus.

Have you ever thought if you were in Bible times and scripture was written about you, what would it say?

I love what it says about Epaphroditus here, by the way. It says that Epaphroditus, what does it say about him?

He was a brother, a fellow worker, and a fellow soldier. I don't see anything in that description about being an evangelist or a preacher or an apostle or anything like that.

He was a brother, a fellow worker, and a fellow soldier. And I think that is a fantastic description.

He diligently served God. So what about you? Again, if you were in the pages of Scripture, how would you be described?

What is your life like? I think it's a great question. Would they describe you as he diligently served

Christ, laid down their life for the Gospel, gave to the needs of others, gave of your time selflessly, served your family?

What would the description be? What would those characteristics be? Or would your life be better described as spent most of their time worrying about themselves, taking care of number one, amassing a small fortune to live comfortably in the later years?

What would your life be best characterized if you were in Scripture? I just want to challenge you with those thoughts this morning.

So as we wrap up the message, my goal here isn't to lay a guilt trip on you. I hope that's not what you walk away with.

Rather, I'd like to tie back to the earlier point from verse 13. God is the one.

God is the one who's working inside of you and working inside of me to help us change, to conform our desires and to conform our lives to the image of Christ.

So I'd like to start there. If God is fingering something in your life, and maybe you're convicted about a particular area this morning,

I am, first of all, I praise God because that's the Holy Spirit. I can't do it, and I just encourage you to listen to the voice of the

Holy Spirit in your life. And by the way, that's an evidence that you are a believer, by the way, if you're feeling conviction.

That's good. But if you're struggling, I also would like to exhort all of us to earnestly pray.

And I'd like to exhort us to pray that God would change our own lives, change us from the inside out, starting with our desires, change our desires into godly desires, and change our lives to reflect

Christ. That's my hope and my prayer this morning, that our lives would be transformed, starting with desires and then resulting in actions, so that we would be willing, joyful, and glad servants of Christ Jesus.

Servants of Christ Jesus. That we would be able to share the good news about Jesus Christ to the world around us.

And we do need to share that good news. The good news, I think we all know, I hope we've heard this good news by now, but the good news is that the light that we're supposed to shine in the darkness is

Jesus himself. Jesus, who is God, who humbled himself, became a man, lived a sinless, perfect life, and willingly sacrificed himself for you and I.

He was both, here's the amazing thing, he was both a lamb offering and the priest giving the offering in that Old Testament picture.

He did both. He laid his life down and he did it. He willingly laid it down. He was both in one.

And that's the Christ that saved us. That's the Jesus that we worship and love.

He was slain for the sins of the world. And everyone who believes in the

Lord Jesus Christ can be saved. So I want to challenge you this morning, have you believed in the name of Jesus?

Or are you still sitting on the fence? I don't want to presume that everyone here is a believer.

There may be some who are still struggling, who aren't sure, or who are questioning things. The offer is open to you.

It's a simple offer. Put your faith and trust in Christ. Just turn to Him and earnestly pray.

There is a turning here. And the word repent means turn from. And what are we to turn from? From sin.

There is sin in our lives. We're all sinners. We know this. And the question is, are you willing to turn from your sin this morning and repent?

Make a change. Acknowledge to God that you've done wrong and turn from it. God is willing to forgive you.

So I just want to exhort you this morning to respond to God's love and mercy and turn to Him if you haven't already.

And at the same time, I also want to encourage all the children of God that are here.

If you're a believer and you've put your faith and trust in God, this next part of the service is communion and we're going to partake of cracker and juice.

The cracker represents the body of Christ that was slain for us. And the juice represents His blood that He shed for the forgiveness of sins.

This is a scripturally directed memory aid for all of us. It's an important one.

We do it every week here. And there are four tables, by the way, set up in the corner room here and here and around.

So when we come to the communion this morning, what we do here in our practice, if you're new to our service, is we just encourage you to stand up during the song.

Take your time. It's at your own pace. And go to the table and take the elements. And you can take them there or take them back to your seat, but you take them at your pace.

But what I would encourage you to do this morning is really contemplate the symbols and the sacrifice that Christ made for you.

I think it's a sober thing. And yet at the same time, it's really a reason to rejoice, isn't it?

Because what Christ did for us brought us into the family. And by bringing us into the family, we can enjoy fellowship with a

Heavenly Father. So as I pray and Josh comes to lead us in one last song,

I'd encourage you to take communion in a moment. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank

You for Your Word, Lord. I thank You for what we can read and understand from the revealed truth of Scripture about who

You are. God, I thank You for Jesus Christ. I thank You for His sacrifice on the cross.

By dying for us, that enables us to have a relationship with You, a loving

Heavenly Father. I thank You, Father, for the fact that we can come to You and be set free from sin.

Father, I thank You for the plan that You have for our lives, which is not to continue to wallow in sin and struggle with the same things, but to turn our back on sin and to repent and to overcome it by the power in us.

So I pray, Father, right now, that You would give us the power to overcome sin,

Lord, and the power is in Your Son, Jesus Christ. So, Lord, as we come to reflect on the symbols,

I pray that our hearts would repent of sin in our lives and turn to You.