Work Out Your Own Salvation :: Philippians 2:12-18

The Apologetic Dog

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Well, hey, my name is Jeremiah nortier. I'm a guest here this morning and it's wonderful to see all of you

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I know Trey Fisher big t -fish daddy as I've heard people calm and so I'm from Jonesboro, Arkansas I and I serve as a pastor at a church plant 12 -5 church so it is an honor to be with you all this morning

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And I just want to tell you so much how I love Trey and his family They have shown me and my friend that traveled here

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Hospitality, have y 'all ever tried their gumbo? I don't know what's in it. It's got this special sauce

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I tell you that Trey could put his sauce in a bag of Doritos and that'll put you out on the couch and I don't know how else to tell you.

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It was just amazing. I want to tell you too Frankie is one of my favorite people on the planet now

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She is fearless like her dad and she came up and grabbed my beard. She my dad has a baby beard

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And I was like, okay. Yes, I think you're right there. So anyway, it's it's an honor to be with all all of you this morning

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So if you would please open your copy of God's Word to Philippians Chapter 2 that's where we'll be at as you're turning there.

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I want to I want you to begin to think with me I want to talk about two different concepts I want us to think about true religion and I want to think about false religion over here in true religion

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We have Christianity This is a gospel of divine grace and accomplishment where Jesus Christ accomplished redemption on Calvary's Hill But then over here at in false religion take any religion of the world that you want and you earn

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Salvation by your merits by doing good works. That is something that all false religions have in common

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That's what I love about Christianity represents the truth It's exclusive to Jesus Christ and him alone

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You look to the Savior in saving faith trusting in him and not of yourself and that is how we are saved

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So I want us to think about that this morning that we are looking at two different kinds of religion

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You got false religion and you have true religion And so as you're still turning there to Philippians chapter 2, we're going to be looking at verses 12 through 18

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We're gonna be looking at how salvation is a process Maybe you've never thought about that before Maybe you said yeah

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I got saved that time that I repented and looked to Jesus and saving faith and that is true But salvation is also a process that God is working in you and so earlier in the book of Philippians 1 verse 6 read that it is

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God who began a good work in you and he will bring it to Completion and so I want you to understand that there is a sense in which a believer was saved past tense a

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Believer is being saved present tense and will be saved Into the future.

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Okay, so maybe you've never thought about salvation being a process like that well salvation is past tense because we are

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Justified before God Almighty when we put our faith in Jesus Christ alone. We are being saved

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This is called our sanctification. This is a process in which we are being made holy we are being conformed more and more into the image of Christ as we are being set apart from the world and We will one day be saved in the future when we reach

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Glorification when we receive this resurrected body fit for eternity and we are with our Lord face -to -face

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For all eternity. And so the reason why I want you to be thinking about that as we look at our text this morning

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Paul is talking about a believers Sanctification he's already talking to believers who are at Philippi and he's gonna be saying work out your salvation and fear and trembling

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So he's talking about that process in which we are being made more and more like Christ He is talking about how we are to be set apart as lights in the world and we are called to never complain

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About our circumstances. Why? Because God has appointed every moment of a believers life to make us more and more like the

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Sun So if you would please stand and let's read God's Holy Word this morning Look with me at verse 12 in Philippians chapter 2

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Paul says therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only in my presence

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But much more my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

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For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent

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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

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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

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Paul says even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith

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I am glad and rejoice with you all likewise. You also should be glad and rejoice with me.

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Let's pray this morning Heavenly Father you are holy

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God you are holy holy holy and God we revere your holy name Lord, I pray that the preaching of your word would edify your people this morning

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God We pray that your spirit would give us ears to hear and that you would open hearts

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Lord, I pray that your truth would sanctify your people when you pray these things in your name Jesus. Amen.

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You may be seated So I'd like to draw your attention back to verse 12 where the heart of this verse in particular

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I want you to see is for believers to work out your own Salvation now all of verse 12 says therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and Trembling and so I want to point out what this verse is not saying

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When we're talking about true religion and false religion a lot of false religion Even cults that have deviated from orthodoxy and the truths of the gospel

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They will actually go to verse 12 and say see you have to work in order to gain favor with God It doesn't say that it doesn't say earn your salvation by working it out

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In fact, there's so much clear scripture that tells us that it is by grace We have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is a gift of God Not a result of works so no one may boast

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So this cannot be used as a proof text to say you actually have to do a lot of work in order to be made

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Right with God Paul is talking to believers at Philippi. And so here we must understand that Paul is referring to believers

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Sanctification and so by implication this refers to all believers of all time We must focus our efforts to looking to the one and only

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Savior Jesus and so here in verse 12, I believe Paul wants us to understand five

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Truths here for all you note -takers. I want us to examine five truths number one believers work out their sanctification by understanding

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Christ's Example and so the verse begins with the word therefore

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Maybe you've you've heard someone say what is the therefore therefore? That is a good point because it's referencing something above in the context.

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He's driving you back to saying Hey, I just gave you all this information about something and here's the point of it all

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And so earlier in the context we see that Jesus is the perfect example of humility submission and obedience

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This is God the Son who humbled himself as a servant and he was perfectly

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Obedient to the Father's will even to the point of dying on the cross as a sacrifice for sin

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That's the context and Paul here is saying Therefore driving our attention back to Christ.

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And so this is the essence of the Christian life, right? We look to Jesus as our example

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And so a lot of people here might be familiar with the five solas of the Reformation.

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Anybody know any of the solas? What's one of them? So Lafitte, what does that mean?

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Faith alone it it frustrates me when I hear people say sola fide or sola fide.

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I'm like no sola fide This is Latin. We understand that it is by faith alone in the same and there's other solas, right?

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We look to the scripture alone right as our ultimate authority. It's by God's grace alone We look to Jesus Christ alone all to the glory of God alone

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These are awesome biblical truths that we see in God's Word, but we're talking about Christ example

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And so there's a sixth sola that I think we're all guilty of adding sometimes and it's solus bootstraptus

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Okay, and so what I mean is we look to ourselves sometimes and we try to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps

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Okay, many of you know what I'm talking about and you're going to fail like I do when I look to myself

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But therefore look back to Christ look to his perfect example

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And as you look to Christ, he will transfer you transform you from the inside out Okay, so that is the first truth that I want us to be aware of in this verse 12

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Number two believers must understand that the driving force in our sanctification is love

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Paul says therefore my beloved. Why is Paul so concerned with believers at Philippi?

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Because he loves them Why should we consider other people's needs and interests above our own because we're called to love one another

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Why should I receive Jesus and pick up my cross and follow after him? It's because he lovingly laid down his life that we might believe in his name and have everlasting life

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And so when we're talking about true true religion and false religion This is another big distinction between the two in Christianity This is a relationship of love when we were restored in our vertical relationship with God And when we're being filled up with love, how is that going to overflow into our relationships with other people?

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They're gonna be loving relationships, but in false religion since false religion is legalistic

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It is built on works righteousness It's going to be devoid of any loving relationships

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Right, doesn't that make sense? Christianity is rooted in love That's why we're called to love the

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Lord our God with all of our heart with all of our soul with our entire Being and so when we're being filled up, we're going to overflow that love into our relationships with other people

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And so number three the third truth here. We must understand that in our sanctification

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We must understand the importance of obedience Now Paul says therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed

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Now this is a tricky one because legalists will say see you got to obey and we're saying yes

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You absolutely do you have to obey from the heart get guess what that is. That's faith. It's all the feeding

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Right, we obey from the heart that justifies us before God and now we we desire to be obedient in our walk

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With the Savior and so I think obedience is the single best word to show that we are to worship

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God with our entire loves Romans chapter 12 says that our bodies are meant to be a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God This is our spiritual worship obedience is wonderful since we have a loving relationship with the

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Savior That's what we desire to do, right? And so with that with that obedience comes great blessing this is the walk of a

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Christian and so number four believers work out their sanctification by understanding their personal responsibilities and Resources, let me say that one again believers work out their sanctification by understanding their personal responsibilities and resources

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Paul here is calling the Philippian believers to work your work out their salvation And he says so now not only in my presence but much more in my absence

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So I want us to think about the immediate context here It would have been so tempting for the Philippian believers to depend on the

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Apostle Paul for their spiritual contentment and happiness But he's in prison So now they are tempted to grumble and complain in their spirits because their theological giant is no longer here

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Okay, and so I think we learn an application in this moment We understand that God gives us wonderful means of grace of having pastors teachers

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Commentary and wonderful Christian fellowship like we have here this morning But these must never be the primary source of our contentment in spiritual growth

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Believers have the responsibility to always follow Christ example, and we have the resource of the indwelling

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Holy Spirit He has given us his life Breathing word and we store that in our hearts.

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This is our primary dependence in all circumstances We look to Jesus Christ Right, and he transforms us and we go to him in prayer and he speaks back to us through his living breathing powerful word

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Amen Amen, so this is important in our sanctification. And so number five believers work out their salvation because of the consequences of sin

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Paul says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and we understand that God is love

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God is merciful. He is gracious, right? And those are wonderful truths, but God is also

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Just he is also holy and he's also wrathful against sin And so he will hold believers accountable for our sin in our lives

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But he's not going to hold us accountable as judge when we are in Christ He is our loving heavenly father and that is beautiful because there is therefore now no

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Condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus God is not our judge anymore But he is our loving heavenly father and so that is what the fear talking about here for believers fear must be understood in the sense of awe and reverence giving

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God honor and all things and when we do this this causes us to tremble in our

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Spirits right of our own spiritual weakness. We must pray to him and depend on him for strength

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This will cause us to earnestly pray for help in avoiding sin this fear and trembling will cause believers like I said to engage in this loving relationship and praise

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God that he does Discipline us out of love when we do fall into sin and so we must understand that there are

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Consequences for our sin and we desire to go down the path of blessing and obedience

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But he will discipline us because he is our loving heavenly father And so as I go through those five truths, you may say

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Jeremiah that is a big list That seems impossible to carry out and you're right

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You cannot look to yourselves to carry out these lists of do's and don'ts in our sanctification

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But guess who we look to we look to Christ and we understand that these that is actually

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God that is working in us To carry these things out. And so please don't miss this point

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We work out what God is working within God works faith in us and we work our faith

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Outward look with me at verse 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his

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Good pleasure. And so when we ask the question, how do we live out our sanctification Paul is saying that it is

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God Who's working in you and I think there's a wonderful mystery going on here because I make decisions in my day -to -day life

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I decided to wake up and come here like all of you But guess who also made that decision from eternity past was

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God we're gonna see that God is sovereign in all things He's working all things together after the counsel of his will he's running the show

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He gets all of the glory and so this should change how we view each and every day

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And so I want to break this down a little bit more when we look at for it is

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God Right. We have to understand a difference between true religion and false religion

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Who is God all religions claim that they follow the one true God or many gods, right?

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But we understand as Christians we believe in the triune God We understand that God has eternally been in relationship with himself and it has been a heart harmonious loving

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Relationship and so that's a key point here that God is personally at work in our lives

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And so false religions that teach this system of legalism salvation by works

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They lack that personal relationship It is cold and so it's impossible to truly know

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God and I tried to Think of maybe an example to share with you. You're familiar with Hinduism Hindu Hinduism belongs over here under false religion

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And the Hindu scriptures teach that God is the absolute creator God, but he is not a person so it would not be fitting to say he the

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Hindu God is unknowable an Unknowable unknowable reality has no moral attributes is neither holy or unholy

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Loving or unloving fair or unfair and so it's puzzling to me If you can't know anything about this

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God how you could know anything at all and that's the problem This God is impersonal unable to communicate and so it's impossible to actually share any truth about the

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Hindu Religion at all and you know why because it's false The true God has revealed himself through scripture and the triune

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God, right? We know God the Son stepped into our space and time in Jesus Christ and has revealed himself to mankind

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And so it's important to examine Truth claims we have an objective standard.

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Don't wait to the scripture We look to the scripture alone as our soul infallible Standard and so that is the

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God that we worship and adore. So look with me at verse 13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure

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And so this willing and working is referring to that divine mystery. Once again, this is our perspective, right?

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You have a will you make a decisions you have desires, but it's also God, right? He is the one that began that good work in you and he is going to bring it to completion

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And so God must be sovereign the Proverbs say this in Proverbs 21 verse 1

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The King's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord and he turns it wherever he wills so I think that is beautiful because it is

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God personally working in us to work and to do his Good pleasure.

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So try to tell me that y 'all do catechisms here and I wanted to ask you the question. What is the chief of man?

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Somebody help me out here. What is that? What is the chief end of man? Yes to honor and glorify

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God to enjoy him forever, right that is our purpose for being here is to glorify

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God in all that we do and to enjoy him So this means that God's sanctifying work and believers has divine purpose

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He is conforming our will and our desires to be more like Christ and so the scriptures tell us that it brought the sovereign

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God joy who is working all things together after the council of his will to lavish grace and mercy on rebel sinners

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He not only began this work of salvation by changing our wills to believe in Christ But he continues to move us by convicting us of our sin and making our heart too long to be with Jesus And so God does all this according to the purpose of his will all to the praise of his glorious grace.

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Amen Man, just making sure that y 'all are awake out there So the

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Apostle Paul think about all the the depths of trials and persecution the things that he went in his life right very hard But this is the deep well that he continued to draw from to get joy

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Right because he believed in the sovereignty of God in all circumstances Paul was in prison yet.

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He could count it as joy because So I really want us to hang on to that that all things have divine purpose for our sanctification and for his glory

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I may have to well, we'll just roll with it. So I want to take your attention now to Romans 8 28 and verse 29

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Because I want us to see hopefully this verse and a little bit greater lie in light of what we've been talking about Paul here says and we know that God causes all things to work together

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For good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose

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I want you to understand that this is God's world, right? He is a a purpose and his creation the way that he desires

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And so a lot of times we get hung up on the word good there I hear a lot of people saying well that good must be for my happiness for my contentment for my prosperity

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No, it's what God is accomplishing is not for your temporal happiness not for your health wealth and prosperity

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Verse 29. He tells us what that good is to be conformed to the image of his

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Son that is talking about our Sanctification and I love that I hope you see this verse in a fuller light that God is sovereignly at work in all things for our

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Sanctification and you may say Jeremiah we've talked about a lot of depth of theology here just in these two verses and we have

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But the Apostle Paul is laying this foundation of theological truth to give us

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Application through the rest of our passage this morning and so look with me at verse 14 through 16 in Philippians chapter 2

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Paul then moves to say do all things without grumbling or Disputing that you may be blameless and innocent

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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

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Word of life So that first phrase Paul says do all things now, what is the context?

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Well, he's referring back to the previous two verses where believers are to work out their salvation

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We're to work out our salvation in all Circumstances of life and then

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Paul gives the Christian a negative command. He says do all things without grumbling or disputing

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Now in my time of study, I looked more into grumbling and disputing here

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Very interesting what I was able to find grumbling in the Greek is actually an automata pay it word

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It means like what it sounds like and so in the Greek for grumbling

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It's a gungus moss and I practice this a little bit for y 'all because it's supposed to be pronounced like this

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Gungus moss and it's kind of a grouchy Grumbly word like bruh, bruh, bruh

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Now now what that means is so you you're gonna understand what you know this experience when someone says something to you that you don't like you start muttering under your breath like I don't like what she said just You know and so grumbling is this idea of an emotional dissatisfaction in your circumstance

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Grumbling is sinful. And so Disputing carries a different idea

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Disputing is reasoning within yourself where you start thinking I do not deserve this experience

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I do not deserve this trial that I'm going through in my life. So grumbling is essentially emotional

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Disputing is essentially intellectual They are both sinful, but they are they are very dangerous when they come together and so this will lead these two sins will lead to the discontentment in your circumstances and will lead you to be discontent in God's providence and provision in your life

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When that happens you'll begin to reason in your mind that you deserve better and this will lead you to questioning and disputing against God's sovereign will

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And that breaks my heart and I'm stepping on my own toes here because a lot of times I consider myself to be a positive

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Person, right, but I grumble and complain in my spirit so much when

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I don't get my way I think it begins while how we forget about who the sovereign creator is and so when

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I read passages like Psalm 139 one of my favorite passages that tell us that we are

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Knitted in our mother's womb that we are fearfully and wonderfully made That passage goes on to say that God has fashioned all of our days in a book

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Before we've even lived any one of those and so what that means is that God has fashioned all of our days specifically in his timing for our life and what this means for Christians is that there should never be emotional grumbling or intellectual disputing with your circumstances

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It is always sinful for a believer to complain about anything that the Lord calls them to or about any

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Circumstance in which he sovereignly allows in your life Doesn't matter if it's a difficult time or you're going through a time of blessing whether you're going through Something that's difficult easy doesn't matter negative attitudes are always forbidden

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And I'm back to thinking about the life of Jesus But he suffered and died

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Submitting himself perfectly to the Father's will the Apostle Paul was in prison Do you think he was tempted to grumble and complain about his circumstances?

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absolutely, and Perhaps the best biggest takeaway. I want you to to hear this morning is that Paul found joy in the joy giver

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Right. There's so many things that we're going to be looking at But we must look to Jesus in all circumstances of our life and he'll give us a peace that Surpasses all -worldly understanding.

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He will give us everlasting joy and contentment and that may be through tears at times, but that's okay

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That's why Paul later says in Philippians 4 for he exhorts believers rejoice in the

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Lord always He's telling us that in every circumstance of life for the believer is to be accepted willfully and joyfully without murmuring

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Without complaining or without disappointment. There is no exception We are called to work out our salvation with this positive attitude

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Paul in Ephesians says we are to rejoice and give thanks always and for everything to God Always and everything

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What about the good and the bad and the ugly that take place all in this world? God has a purpose in it all we can rest in him having that purpose and so when

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I think through just the insurmountable task of Finding joy in God always without grumbling or complaining.

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I tell myself Oh, no, that's not going to happen. And that's when I look to myself, right?

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That's what's going to happen, but we must understand that as believers. We are not like the rest of the world

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We have a new position before God. We have a new nature. We are the children of God So look back with me at verse 14

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Where Paul says do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God And we are without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world

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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

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And so the key to Paul's exhortation here in Stopping our complaining and grumbling is because he's saying you have a new status

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You have a new position as children of God. And so have you ever heard the old cliche?

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Aren't we just all children of God? Have you ever heard that somewhere? It's a cliche saying that's starting to creep into the church and I don't know where it came from But it is totally against what the scriptures teach us in the gospel of John We read but to all who did receive

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Jesus who believed in his name. He gave the right to become children of God and so there is oftentimes great confusion that yes

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We are all a part of God's creation and as humans we are made in his image But we are not born into this world as children of God We are actually born dead in our sins and our trespasses

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Right spiritually dead unable to understand the things of God and we actually run the opposite direction

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But scriptures actually tell us that we are children of somebody but it's not God. We are born physically and spiritually into this world as children of the devil

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First John 3 10 says by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children the devil?

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Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother

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And so I'm wanting you to see a contrast between the world Right, that's an opposition to God that the scripture says is a child of the devil and with the children of God We have a new heart

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We've been given new desires too long to be obedient and give God glory and to enjoy him forever

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And so look with me earlier in the context of Philippians 2 verse 8 as children of God We have a new heart with new desires and we want to follow after the example of Jesus Verse 8 says and be found and being found in human form

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Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross

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And so it is Jesus who was absolutely submitted to the father's will he never grumbled

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He never complained about his circumstance. His heart was set on obedience Righteousness love and humility

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And there is no greater love than this that the world has ever seen to see someone lay down his life for his friends

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Those who did oppose him, but he loved them Anyway, and we see here in the gospel the fountain of God's love pouring forth while we were still sinners

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Christ died for us Amen, that is the gospel of grace a gospel of divine

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Accomplishment nothing that you can store up and merit on your own account And so as children of God we possess this new nature and it compels us to follow

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Christ example to walk in the light as he is in the light to Fellowship here with other believers and this is but a foretaste of the glory that awaits us

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And so we strive to have this mind of Christ This moves us to love one another not grumbling or complaining about our circumstances, but rejoicing in the

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Lord always Submitting ourselves in all circumstances to the father's sovereign will in our lives so look back with me at verses 15 and 16 and We've covered a lot of ground this morning and a lot of it has been talking about truth, right?

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Really setting that theological foundation, but I want to give you three reasons here from the text where I think the

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Apostle Paul wants us To stop complaining. So I want to give you three reasons number one Believers should stop complaining for the sake of their own well -being

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Okay, Paul once again says do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless innocent children of God without blemish

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Every Christian is in this process of becoming more like Christ that includes being more blameless and innocent

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This means forsaking grumbling and complaining and this helps the sanctifying process

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Blameless means to be without defect. This essentially carries the idea of desiring holiness

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To be unmixed or innocent means to be unmixed so believers lives are absolutely to be to desire purity to be unmixed from sin and evil as Children of God we are called to be without blemish.

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This essentially means that we want to be above reproach or faultless We understand that in our own power we can never obtain this standard

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But all this mean is not looking to yourself and looking to the one who is perfect In fact,

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Jesus, we understand that he will not allow us to fall away right because he is a perfect Savior This is what the book of Jude says that he is able to keep believers from stumbling and to make them stand in the presence of his glory

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Blameless with great joy if we constantly are renewing our minds with these truths

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This will change how we live our lives Stop grumbling and complaining for the sake of yourselves for the sake of your sanctification

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Enjoying God enjoying him giving him glory in every aspect that we live

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And so that first point once again believers should stop complaining for the sake of themselves

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Number two believers should stop complaining for the sake of the unsaved as children of God We dwell the text says in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation

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Among whom you shine as lights in the world holding fast to the word of life

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So that word crooked here in the Greek is Scolios. Okay, and as we look into this, maybe you've heard of the medical condition called scoliosis, right?

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It's talking about an abnormal thing of the spine that it's curved. It's kind of bent away

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Well, that's interesting because that finds its root here in the Greek scolios a crooked and twisted generation

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This kind of paints the picture of this fallen world has curved away from God's law has deviated from his

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Righteousness. So how are Christians to live in this world? Well, it's not by grumbling and complaining

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We're called to shine as lights in this dark and devious world That means that our character should be like the

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Sun the moon and the stars that light up the dark sky And I'm reminded what our

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Lord said in his famous sermon on the mount the most famous sermon ever preached He said you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket

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But on a stand and it gives light to all who are in the house in the same way

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Let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven

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Isn't that beautiful? We don't look to ourselves. Do we desire to do good works?

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Absolutely, because he already saved us. He justified us. He gave us a new heart a new desire

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He gave us a new nature and we point the whole world back to glory glorifying God And so this is what the gospel has to offer it

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Transforms us and please don't miss this The only way for the children of God to be a shining light in this dark world is by holding fast to the

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Word of Life And so the Word of Life here refers to the transforming power of the gospel

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But I believe this principle also applies to all of God's Word. Are y 'all studying through the gospel of John, right?

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So hopefully this will sound familiar back in John 6 Jesus says it is the spirit who gives life the flesh profits

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Nothing the words I have spoken to you are spirit in life If you recall remember there was a lot of disciples a lot of learners follower following after Jesus Well, Jesus said a lot of hard truths to grass and what did they do?

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They walked away didn't they this big crowd that was desiring after miracles to have their tummies filled up, right?

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They're just like okay. You're talking about no one can come to me unless the father grants him. I'm out You're talking about God's sovereignty.

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I don't like that. And so Jesus turns and says to the twelve. Do you want to go away also?

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Peter responded Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life

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Isn't that beautiful? Right. We we are holding fast to the Word of Life when you have tasted and seen that the

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Lord is gracious Nothing else will do when you have tasted that the Word of God is good and nourishes your soul.

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That's what you desire That's why you're here this morning. You're searching after truth, right? You want a relationship with God and you don't want you understand by looking at yourselves

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You cannot earn your way to God Christ did it and so that's how we engage with this loving relationship

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With Jesus as we spend time meditating in his word desiring to be obedient to us and we speak back to him in prayer

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And so I love what Paul says holding fast to the Word of Life But if you have a

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King James Bible, I think that the translations interesting there as well It says holding forth to the

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Word of Life. I love the the good old King Jimmy Translation I try to look at a bunch of different ones and I like what the

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King James says here because it's this idea You're not looking to yourself holding fast to the

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Word of Life Like you're trying to keep this list of do's and don'ts but you're being filled up with light so much

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But you can't help but to hold it forth hold it out to this lost world so number three

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I've covered a lot of ground here, right? We want to stop grumbling and complaining for the sake of ourselves for the sake of this this lost world and number three

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Believers should stop complaining for the sake of their pastors Now, I know that sounds like a strange point, but look with me at verse 16

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Paul says so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

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I Believe here we see Paul's pastoral heart He longs to see the day of Christ when the people that the

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Lord entrusted to his care have reached the pinnacle of their spiritual growth in the day of glory

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So when we read this, what is Paul talking about running in vain? What in the world is he working so hard at?

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Well, have you ever thought about? Maybe pastors only work about one day a week maybe one hour a week right on Sundays and as I've talked with people and heard stories,

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I Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of pastors that probably do just work one day a week I've talked to individuals that say well

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My pastor said that he joined the ministry to work on his gospel more and that breaks my heart

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Because that is not pastoral ministry the way that the scriptures teach us we see with the

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Apostle Paul in verse 17 He says even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith

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When a man is truly called by God to be an under shepherd a pastor for the

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Saints He pours out his whole life into that service. Isn't that beautiful? It's a calling

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It's not something to go work on your golf swing on or I'm just gonna get up there and shoot from the hip and tell

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A bunch of stories and sprinkle a little bit of Bible verses John 3 16 in there, which I love right

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But you understand what I'm saying? Somebody that is right praying to rightly handle the word of life right with precision and care

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That's what biblical pastors do they labor in the study of God's Word so that the preaching will renew our hearts and guard us from Satan's lies pastors are called to rightly handle the word of truth to equip the

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Saints to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Pastors that understand this calling they understand the power of prayer.

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They will devote themselves praying intentionally and Specifically for the flock that has been entrusted to their care.

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They will sacrificially minister to their needs And that's where the Apostle Paul says and I'm glad and rejoice with you all

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So yes, Paul experienced the hardships of enduring all things for the sake of God's people

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But he found great joy seeing them grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior seeing them grow in their sanctification

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And so it brought him so much joy to see this happen in their life

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And so lastly here we got to try to land this plane, right? Verse 18 Paul says likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me

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Paul experienced so much joy, but he wasn't alone. He was able to rejoice together with the

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Saints They were joining together with him in this sacrificial ministry of the gospel

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They became gospel partners And that is one of the joys of tethering yourselves to a church to become a member to be in covenant to be in Koinonia joint participation in fellowship because when you're in Christ you have the indwelling

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Holy Spirit who's given you Specific gifts to minister and help other people's needs

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And so we we feel hurt and pain when one of our brothers and sisters are in pain, don't we?

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But we also rejoice when they're going through a time of blessing, right? We're called to be a family together.

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And so that includes the pastor right pray for your pastor understand that he is

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Interceding on your behalf in his study I pray that that's exactly what this people here at the parish of the

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Redeemer would be a people of God That's that lifts up their elders right and holding them accountable

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And so let us do that with joy and not grumbling or complaining. And so my last thought

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More is an exhortation Let us strive to be side -by -side in unity

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Fixing our gaze on Jesus Christ who lovingly laid down his life for us and let us keep this mindset in Humility count others as more significant than ourselves be steadfast

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Immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your work is never in vain and by God's grace

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I pray that we would work out our salvation with fear and trembling Rejoicing in the

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Lord always never grumbling or complaining about any circumstances in our lives

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Because God is sovereign and he willed every moment of your life for your sanctification and for his glory