Living In Light Of Eternity - [Philippians 2:12-18]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

8 views

0 comments

00:01
Standing here in the pulpit and opening
00:06
God's Word and proclaiming it is a weighty task.
00:11
It's an honorable task. It's a weighty task. And I want to make sure that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heart are acceptable to the
00:21
Lord. So why don't we open with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our text.
00:28
Our loving Father, we thank you that this evening we can come together as brothers and sisters in Christ to hear your word.
00:38
Would you, oh Father, speak the word by your spirit to each of us that we would be a people that are eager and awaiting your word.
00:50
To receive it, to meditate on it and to be transformed by your spirit work in us through it.
01:01
In Jesus name. Amen. All right, so this particular text that I picked is a,
01:09
I've been preaching through the book of Philippians, but it's been in different churches. And here at BBC, I've preached a couple of sections and I, the last time
01:16
I preached, I preached on Philippians 2 verses 5 through 11. Speaking about this amazing work of Christ, who
01:25
Christ is and what he has done. And in light of that section, there's something that Paul says in our passage today, which is
01:33
Philippians 2 verses 12 through 18. But before I dive into the text,
01:41
I want to kind of lay out where I'm going with this text. What is the thrust of this text and how do we best understand and apply it?
01:50
So to do that, let me shift gears a little bit and ask you something about the way you live your life today.
02:00
Are you the kind of person that likes to plan out your day and execute it according to your plan?
02:09
You're living in time, you're living in space. And this coming week, do you already have some plans for what you are going to do?
02:18
Do you have some ideas of what must be done and in what order? Maybe at work, maybe this is at your home or maybe something to do with your family members or even here within the body.
02:32
Last week began like that for me. I think most of us do. So I had a nice little plan.
02:38
I said, this is what I'm going to do this week. But the Lord had a way of changing that somewhat completely.
02:46
And given what transpired, I had to visit the hospital more than I visited my work.
02:53
And it was just wonderful to see that, you know, we make these plans, we lay them before the
02:59
Lord, and the Lord has ways of changing them. And you just have a new plan. You just adjust it and then you have a plan and you execute on it.
03:07
Now, most of the plans that I make tend to be focused on events that are in time and in space, things that I'm responsible for that I need to execute.
03:20
And I try to make sure that I do my best in my responsibility to plan and do them.
03:26
Now, the question I have for us this evening is, do you want to do the same, that is, to plan and to execute each day, but not just in the scope of time and space, but in the scope of eternity?
03:48
Do you want to plan each day that you have in light of eternity?
03:56
And the question that should follow is, can you make such a plan and execute it?
04:03
Or better still, what does such a plan look like? So I'm going to try to unpack from our text this morning, this evening,
04:10
Philippians 2, 12 through 18, how can we live in light of eternity? And there are five vital questions that I think you want to look from this text and see, does this text tell me anything about how
04:23
I must live my life and live my life in light of eternity and not just the job that I need to execute tomorrow?
04:31
So I've already given you the answers in your sheet. There are five questions. Who, what, how, why, and where?
04:37
And I'm going to just kind of give you the answers right now, and then we will work through each of them. Who? In matters of eternity, who is involved?
04:47
Who are the key players in your life that you need to be considering as you make your plans? And I say there are four key persons or groups.
04:58
One of them is you. You want to be involved in your eternity. The second is
05:04
God. God is actively involved, and how do we interact with him? And then we're going to see how Paul is involved in this particular text, and that translates to the leaders, the church leaders in your life that spiritually lead and guide you, and the local church as well as part of group three.
05:19
And then the final group, four, is unbelievers. You will be surprised to find that your plans for eternity ought to include unbelievers as well.
05:30
So that's the who. You, God, your leaders, the church, and unbelievers.
05:36
What? In light of eternity, what exactly is your mandate?
05:42
What are you called to do when you plan and execute your life? There are two high -level answers in your sheet.
05:50
Work out your salvation and acknowledge God's work in you. Those are the two major what that needs to be answered, and that's where we're going to spend the bulk of our time trying to understand and unpack it.
06:01
The third question, how? In light of eternity, how must you live today?
06:08
And the two -word answer is don't complain. Sounds like a very weird, weird answer, but we're going to try to understand why that is a key part of living our life in light of eternity.
06:21
Don't complain. The fourth one is why. What has complaining to do with eternity?
06:30
And you're going to see three aspects here. There is something about your character that you need to pay attention to if you're looking at eternity.
06:40
There is something about your testimony about how you are going to live your life out in front of the world.
06:47
And then the last one is how you showcase your lifeline, or how are you holding on to life as you go through life in time as you plan for eternity.
06:58
And then the last one question is when. Does your life ever matter?
07:04
Sometimes you go through life like, if I didn't exist, everything would have been just fine.
07:10
No, God has you here for a purpose, and you're going to see, and this is really where I'm picking out the term eternity.
07:18
If you will see this, there is a day of Christ that Paul has in mind as he's instructing these people.
07:25
There is a day when you're going to cross over into eternity, and that day does matter. But you're not going to wait for that day to do the things that God calls you to do now.
07:35
So you're going to make those plans for today, the when is now, and the day of Christ.
07:40
So those are the quick answers, if you will, before we jump into each one.
07:47
So let's now unpack the five questions. Who in matters of eternity, who are the players, whom should you consider as you look to live out your life with a view to eternity?
08:01
So let's start with you. Throughout verses 12 through 18, you will see that this passage is about the believer.
08:10
Paul is writing to the Philippians. The Spirit of God is taking that very words and applying that to you and to me today.
08:19
No brainer, you are a key player in your own life. You are responsible for the life that has been given to you.
08:27
Now what is that life that we have? In Philippians 1 and up until this part,
08:35
Paul covers a bunch of things about what God has done in the life of a believer. I'm going to just pick on those things as we go through, but you can just think of he who began a good work in you will bring it to the day of completion.
08:46
For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. That is something that has happened in the life of a believer. So everyone here who is a believer can unequivocally affirm,
08:57
I am a child of God. I have repented of my sin.
09:03
I have believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has saved me. He has given me a new nature and now
09:12
I have the Spirit of God indwelling me. This is who I am. I'm not just any evolved material person that is just using my brains to figure out my life.
09:23
I am a child of God. I have Christ given new nature and I have the
09:29
Spirit of God indwelling me. And this is who I am, my identity. Now with this identity,
09:35
I have been and you have been placed on planet earth for a very short time before you leap on to eternity.
09:45
I want that to sink in because people, we live like the world because we think like the world.
09:51
The world thinks everything ends when they die. Our life just begins when we die. Our eternal life has begun already.
09:58
When you believe in Jesus Christ, you have life eternal. There is an already and a not yet.
10:06
You have opened the gates as it were into eternity and that has begun now. And I need to be looking at eternity when
10:13
I live my life in the present. So when I think of my present, I want to see that this 10, 20, 50, even 100 years in light of an infinite time with an almighty
10:26
God is a blip. But that blip, I am responsible for how
10:32
I live. And when I think of my life in light of eternity, the choices I'm going to make are going to be radically different than if all
10:40
I said is I need to pay my bill and die an old man with my grandchildren around me. There is a whole lot at stake in the life of the believer.
10:49
You are a key player here and we will see how that works. You have a responsibility toward God now while you live in time and in space.
10:59
Let me repeat that. You have a responsibility for God now, the one who made you his child, adopted you into his family, the one who gave you new life and the one who has given you his spirit.
11:09
You are now accountable for him to how you will live this life. Remember, as a child of God, you are positionally perfect.
11:17
That is absolutely nothing you can do to make yourself look better in the eyes of God.
11:24
God sees you through the lens, as it were, of Jesus Christ.
11:30
You are robed in the righteousness of Christ. But you have the responsibility that we are going to look at is that you will practically demonstrate you are positionally perfect.
11:41
Now, practically, your new life here needs to grow in time and in space until you are engulfed in eternity.
11:51
There are many passages that talk about this, but we'll jump on those things later. Think about this.
11:58
When God created Adam, he gave him a responsibility of stewardship of the
12:03
Garden of Eden. We all know how that went. Jesus fulfilled that failed responsibility of Adam.
12:14
And the question you and I must be asking is, what exactly does God want you to do while you're here on earth?
12:21
Is there even a stewardship that you have today in light of the gospel that has saved you?
12:28
So that's one. You are a key player, and you want to remember that before you figure out what that is in our text.
12:34
The second key person here, and probably I should have started with this first, is God himself.
12:39
Verse 13 talks about what God is doing in your life in light of eternity.
12:45
The text, we're going to unpack this later, but it says God is acting in your life for his good pleasure.
12:52
So your life, the plan that you're making, God is very much interested in and invested in and working in.
12:59
And he is acting in your life for good pleasure. But how does God act? God is eternal, right?
13:07
He is not a creature of time and space like that. And yet this eternal
13:13
God, who is infinite and outside of time, acts in time and space as you travel through time and space.
13:23
Now let's just think about your own life. When you look at the past, in the past, he saved you.
13:30
He justified you. He declared that you're not guilty. In the future,
13:37
God will save you as you are one day brought into the presence of God in perfection, and you are separated from sin forever.
13:48
But in the present, he is saving you. God now provides for you everything that you need for life and godliness while here on earth.
14:00
Salvation is a past, present, and a future event. It is certain in your life you have the eternal security that God who finished that work will one day complete it.
14:09
You have experienced the joy of justification. You've seen the joys of working through sanctification.
14:16
But now we are going to intentionally look and see how that works for eternity. God actively works in you every day in time and space in order to change you, transform you, and conform you into the image of Christ.
14:30
And when God does this, he gets all the glory as his work is vindicated in you.
14:37
When you are transformed, God gets the glory. When you are transformed,
14:43
God uses that to bring others into glory. We're going to see all of this in a moment.
14:49
The third group is the leaders. You see this in verses 12, 16, 17, and 18.
14:56
We have Paul speaking to himself, and we're going to expand that to leaders. Paul taught the Philippians these truths, and he says in the end that he gets his joy and his reward when he sees these
15:07
Philippians live out their life the way they are called in light of eternity. Because it is that day which will reveal whether his labor was in vain or not.
15:17
And like John who says, I rejoice when my children walk in the truth, so Paul echoes that.
15:24
And for you today, your leaders likewise feel the same. You know, as Pastor Mike and Pastor Steve, and as we proclaim
15:32
God's word, as we come alongside you to equip you and teach you the truth, there is much joy in the leadership when we get to see how
15:40
God is glorified in your life today as we get to see the work of God evident here in the midst of our church, and he is exalted now and one day, that day, for eternity.
15:56
Now, the church is not mentioned in this passage, but if you go back, verse 12 begins with a therefore, and if you say, okay, therefore, what is
16:05
Paul referring to? You need to go from 5 through 11, which is the previous section. It's talking about all about Jesus Christ, who, very
16:12
God, becomes man in the incarnation, lives that life of perfection, dies and is resurrected and is exalted above every name.
16:21
So that's the therefore that it's referring to. But then that passage begins with a reference earlier, and if you look at that whole section that Jonathan read so well for us, it's talking about unity in the church.
16:33
He's talking about how in the church we want to be unified against the attacks of the enemy, how we want to be unified together, how we want to view one another.
16:41
So if you look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, and especially verse 3, you get to see how there is a responsibility for the believer to consider others more important than ourselves, to be humble, and that's kind of what launches this whole conversation to where we are now in Paul's mind.
17:00
He's like, you need to be humble in order to be able to respect one another and treat one another with love.
17:07
And then he says, here's an example, Jesus Christ, the ultimate example of one who humbled himself for the sake of the others.
17:15
And then with that, we come into this text. And so you want to remember that church is in the background.
17:20
He has already addressed it as he's coming here into our text. And then we move from the church and from the leaders to unbelievers.
17:31
Verse 15 talks to unbelievers. It doesn't actually quite use the term unbeliever.
17:37
The terms you will see there are a twisted and perverse generation and the term world with an implication that this is a dark world that we are referring to.
17:47
So believers are in the midst of this generation and this dark world. And so Paul says there is something that you do in time and space that has significance for eternity with this fourth group of people, which is the unbelievers.
18:03
And you and I were once unbelievers. These are not some alien creatures. You and I were children of the devil like they were.
18:10
But God was so gracious to grab us and pluck us and make us his children and graft us into his kingdom.
18:18
Now, unbelievers have an urgent need because they too are on the tip of eternity to see something that they cannot otherwise see.
18:34
Jesus is not walking on the earth today. He's not going to the cross. He has accomplished his work, but he has left you and me to do something.
18:45
We have a responsibility for something as their eternity is also at stake and we'll see what that is.
18:53
So the first point was who, in light of eternity, pay attention to yourself. What has
18:59
God called me to do for eternity? What is God doing in my life for eternity?
19:05
Well, how are the leaders equipping me and what is my responsibility to the church and my responsibility to the unbelievers?
19:11
We'll see more details on this as we look at the rest of the section. So let's move to the second question.
19:18
What? And this is the central section. We're going to spend the bulk of our time here and the other questions will move rather quickly in light of eternity.
19:26
What is your mandate? So you when I opened up, I said, OK, I kind of know how to plan my day, my day planner for work and for home.
19:36
But how does my day planner for eternity look like? Here's here's the answer.
19:42
There are two key things to keep in mind. You have a task, you know, just like you go to work.
19:47
You have a task to accomplish. You finish it like, OK, I finished my what I was responsible for. But also you have a source that you need to pay attention to.
19:57
You have a task and you have a source. And we're going to look at each of these carefully and see how you can now rewrite your day planner with eternity in mind.
20:07
So let me first read verse 12 when we speak about your task. Work out your salvation.
20:15
Verse 12 says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed.
20:20
So now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
20:30
Let me just pick out a few words here before we look at the key text. The first one is, you know,
20:36
Paul's writing to the Philippians. This is one of his favorite churches. Well, favorite, not because he was partial, but this was one of those churches that just loved the
20:43
Lord, loved Paul and loved to serve. And he expresses his affection for them, even as he is talking about the command that comes.
20:51
This is an imperative that Paul is giving them. And he uses the word as you have always obeyed.
21:02
Obedience is not just for children to their parents.
21:09
Obedience is something that we, as children of God, take much joy in when we recognize what our
21:18
Father wants of us. And obedience, we could speak about this quite a bit.
21:24
But Pastor Mike talked this morning, as the word is preached, we submit to it. What does that mean?
21:30
If the word comes to me and I don't like it, I say, no, you know, it is my Father's word.
21:35
And I want to come under it and listen to it and apply it the way that God would have me do.
21:41
So obedience is one of those things that as an unbeliever, you were incapable of doing.
21:47
But now as a believer, we will see you have the power to obey and you have a responsibility to obey.
21:53
But Paul says something a little bit more here. He says, work out your own salvation.
21:58
Work it out just like you did it with my presence, but now in my absence. And I'm thinking like, you know, when children, let's think of one act of obedience.
22:10
God has given us his word. He wants us to read his word. And I read his word. When I was a little child,
22:17
I didn't always want to read the word. And my mom would come and say, did you read the Bible?
22:23
And she'd be like, OK, mom, I didn't, but I will obey you because I know what the consequences will look like if I did it.
22:30
And sometimes my mom would just sit and read with me. So I get into the habit of obedience that I didn't quite have.
22:37
But someday that child grew up and became a believer who out of his own desire wants to obey.
22:44
And still, because my mom is teaching me, I'm learning from her and I'm doing these things. But Paul says, you know, when
22:51
Paul was first with them 10 years back, he was in the city of Philippi. He was teaching them. They loved him.
22:57
They learned from him and they were seeking to grow in the knowledge. And now Paul is in a prison in Rome and he is far away.
23:05
But his desire is that their obedience would even grow further as they apply this for themselves in light of their relationship with the
23:14
Lord. Now, let's keep moving.
23:20
So now we're going to jump into one key words, two words or one word in the
23:25
Greek, which is called working out your own salvation, working out your own salvation.
23:32
This is Philippians two has a couple of words that people get tripped up on easily. You know, the first one is obviously kenosis.
23:41
What happened to Jesus? We're not going to talk about that. You can watch the previous sermon or Andrew's upcoming sermon for that.
23:51
But the other passage is this. Work out your own salvation. Who is salvation by works? Well, if it was salvation by works,
23:58
I think the preposition you would have that is work for your salvation, not work out your salvation.
24:03
So this is not Paul saying, you know, you need to now somehow finish in your flesh what
24:09
Christ has begun for you. But what exactly does this mean? Work out the work out.
24:18
The primary meaning of that word is to complete or bring to fulfillment or finish what has actually begun in you.
24:30
You want to remember that when God began that good work, when these Philippians one six, he who began a good work in you, there is an inner reality which is positional.
24:40
You have become a child of God. And Paul now gives a command.
24:52
Let's just be very clear. This is not just let's reflect on this. He says, you, Corey, work out your own salvation.
25:08
The working out of your salvation as God who has begun in you is an essential part of sanctification.
25:16
As you live out the life that God has given you, let me give you a couple of opposites.
25:23
So you know exactly what it is not. There are people who would claim to be believers, but their life has zero fruit in them.
25:33
Can they claim to be believers? No. If a believer is in the vine, that vine will necessarily produce fruit.
25:47
If there is the spirit of God within me, there will be the fruit of the spirit that is evident in my life.
25:54
But we're going to look at this more closely. There is a mindset that sometimes gets into people where it's like, you know, these things are automatic.
26:02
I became a believer and I will just happen. Those things will happen in my life. No day planner needed for me because, you know,
26:09
I'm a child of God. If that was the case, there would be zero imperatives about working out your salvation.
26:18
You'd be like, take the bed covers, slip right underneath it, and then you'll wake up in glory. There is a urgent need for believers to recognize the command that is given here in light of eternity.
26:29
I have a responsibility to work out that transformation. And if there is an inner life, that life needs to show itself.
26:37
And I have a part to play in the way in which it works out. This word, enegeo, you're talking about labor.
26:45
You know, if you want to get muscles, you go to the gym and work out. If you want to have fruit, you're not staying under the spiritual bed covers, as it were, and waiting for, you know, you to have love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self -control.
26:59
You know, the Spirit of God is active in you, but you have a responsibility. And I'm going to repeat this.
27:05
I meet and counsel people who struggle with many areas in their lives. And that's partly because, not fully, but partly because we have not invested in those things that God has called us to work out in our lives for eternity.
27:21
We'll come back to this in a moment. But the second part of this verse that I want you to pay attention to is fear and trembling.
27:31
Let me ask you this. When was the last time, and I was very convicted when I was thinking of this verse.
27:37
In fact, this week was a good week for me because this verse had percolated in my life from the last few weeks.
27:43
And I was like, okay, I kind of know what I need to be doing at least. When was the last time you looked at God with fear and trembling?
27:52
Fear and trembling is one of those expressions that is there in the Bible. And it talks about a believer, a child of God that comes into the presence of God and is overwhelmed by the awe of who
28:04
God is. That there is this holy reverence of an infinite transcendent being in the presence of whom we stand.
28:16
And that causes a trembling or shaking as it were when you recognize that you want to please this
28:23
God and not offend this God who loves you so. Koram Deo, living your life before God.
28:30
Again, your day planner becomes a lot easier when you say, okay, what am I doing for my manager?
28:36
What am I doing for my Savior and my Lord today? Awe, reverence, fear.
28:45
When I think of my manager, I got into a little trouble on Friday, Saturday.
28:51
Some of you know that, working desperately to fix some things. And I'm like, ah, I don't want to look like an idiot before my manager.
29:02
I want to make sure that we fix this problem before Monday morning. We could do it out of servile fear and say, oh,
29:10
I could lose my job. But rather, if you really respect your manager as you are, do you want to say,
29:15
I want to please my manager, work as unto the Lord. And when I think of my life for this week, and I've made some plans and I'm working through those things, do
29:24
I do them with the same kind of reverence of like, I want to please my Savior, the one who gave his life for me.
29:31
Do I want to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, or do I just go ho -hum? How do you consider your walk today in light of this
29:42
God before whom you ought to have fear and trembling? By the way, that's a command too.
29:48
It's not like an emotion. It's like, when I feel like it, I'll feel fear and trembling. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
29:55
So if you're not working out your salvation with fear and trembling, you are disobeying this direct command of the
30:01
Spirit of God to us. So we ought to pay attention to this and say, what must I do to be in the presence of God, recognize who he is, and how
30:10
I live my life before him. All right, that's your task. Okay, that's the hard part. Well, maybe not.
30:16
We'll look at the second part, and that's just as important or even more important, and that's in verse 13.
30:24
Paul then says, Just remember this.
30:38
On your own, in your flesh, you and I cannot do transformation.
30:45
We are not changed. I was trying to blow a balloon for Judith's birthday last week. I'm terrible at this.
30:51
I even used a pump. But they have these balloons that you're supposed to make into, you know, I don't know, magical creatures.
30:58
All I can get is a slinky sausage with a long tail. I can't get much past that.
31:05
And then by the time I finish and I try to tie it up, it goes flat.
31:12
I mean, that's our life without God. You know, we can try all we want. There is going to be zero transformation if God is not working in me.
31:21
And the interesting part is, I won't even desire the transformation. Do I want to look like Christ?
31:29
Or do I just want to continue looking like me? You know, just put a little makeup. The thing is, on my own, it is impossible.
31:37
So let's now look at the second part of how God works in us. Now, a little bit of theology, and then we'll look at this particular text.
31:48
We have Christ in us, which is the hope of glory.
31:55
You have the Spirit of God indwelling you. He is the one who convicts when you sin.
32:03
He is the one who encourages you to continue to pursue the life that God has called you to.
32:10
He is the one who empowers you in order to live out this life with the ability to do it.
32:18
Now, I was thinking of the imagery of my life before Christ and after Christ. I was trying to think of the oldest car,
32:26
Jalopy, that is rusted as a bucket and doesn't quite move. In fact, its engine is so rusted, it just falls off.
32:32
There's nothing there, just the shell. You know, that's my life before Christ. No life. And when
32:38
I became a believer, I now have like a jet engine or a
32:44
SpaceX rocket or whatever. Think of the power of God that has been given to me that God himself, the creator of the universe, who speaks everything into existence, now says he works in me.
32:57
That's the power that has now been given to this rust bucket. And the cool part of it is this rust bucket gets transformed.
33:06
It doesn't stay as a rust bucket because one day you get a glorified body, but today you get to see how
33:13
God is visible. And we'll see that in the later verses as God does his work inside out in you.
33:21
And so, now you might say, okay, what should I do? The previous verse was very clear. You have a responsibility to work out.
33:28
But let's think about this verse for a moment. When was the last time you thanked
33:36
God for his active work in you? You know, the day planner that I have,
33:45
I probably should come to the end of the week and check those things off that God has enabled in me and be grateful for the work that he has done.
33:55
Yes, I approach the week with fear and trembling as I stand my day before God himself and with a desire to please him and recognizing that any good that has come is indeed of God.
34:09
In fact, yesterday was a very interesting day, and I wasn't sure how it was going to transpire.
34:15
But God's word was very clear. Here is your priorities. Here is what you need to be doing. Don't worry about the consequences.
34:21
We'll talk about that in ethics class, utilitarianism. We are not utilitarian people. We live as a people that obey and trust
34:28
God. And here, in this particular scenario, I look back at the end of the day and I say, this is impossible for Pradeep to do.
34:39
And there is joy in what has happened. Lord, there has been an amazing work that you have done.
34:47
I give you thanks, and I want to continue to rely on you. I wish every day would be such as opposed to just one particular day where the stress has become so much that I fall on the face of God and recognizes his call on me and his power working in me.
35:02
So the two things God does is will and works. The desire that you have for any good, the
35:07
Bible says, is God who gives you that desire. You know, when you think of sanctification, normally you think of what?
35:15
Putting off, putting on. What gives you the desire to put off?
35:23
Sometimes I'm going through sin and I'm like, I can kind of get away with this for a little longer before the chastisement comes.
35:31
But there is a time when you just hate your sin that has come into your life.
35:37
I'd like to think that I just got smart and I decided that was something to put off. This is
35:42
God at work in me as he changes my heart from a love for whatever it is that is tempting me away from him to saying, hate that, throw that away, put that off.
35:57
And likewise, when there are things that, oh, you know, I could prioritize a lot of other things. My day planner can be filled with X as opposed to what is pleasing to the
36:05
Lord. And all of a sudden the Lord just draws your heart toward those things. You're like, why am
36:11
I even thinking this? It is the Lord who gives you that desire. He enables you to want those things.
36:20
And people remember this. It is so easy to think like the world. First John 2, 15 through 17, you know, and earlier, we can just if you don't, if you go into autopilot, you're just going to go doing your own thing.
36:34
But God is the one who quickens you. He's the one who gives you this desire. And even after you get the desire, what makes you empowered to do those desires, to put them into practice?
36:46
You know, this temptation is way too hard, Lord. This call to ministry is just impossible for me.
36:54
SpaceX engine. I don't know what's more powerful, but I'm sure there's something else. There is God at work in you that enables you to kick that thing that just wouldn't walk away from you.
37:06
There is God at work in you to do those things that is humanly impossible. We have plenty of examples in the
37:12
Bible about what has happened. And you know, God has done that in your life before. But will that be in your day planner?
37:19
Or will that just happen as life goes on? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, because it is
37:25
God who is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.
37:35
There is a directional focus of what God does in your life. And it's not my direction.
37:44
Most of the time. Last week I had a plan and God had a different plan. And each of us make our plans.
37:51
Like if you think of Proverbs 3, 4 through 6, there is a way in which God then takes that plan and then puts what is pleasing to him in my life when it comes to the desire and the work that needs to be done.
38:06
Do you know what gives God pleasure in your life today?
38:14
So you just make that plan for Monday. What is it that would be pleasing to the Lord? He will give you those desires.
38:21
He will give you the ability to do it. I hope you are starting to get a sense of what it means to live in light of eternity.
38:29
Living in light of eternity means I have a greater master than my work manager, than even my spouse, than any other person in this world, including myself, that likes to make the plan for my life.
38:44
There is God who is at work and there are specific commands of the scripture that ought to have priority for me as I'm living out my life.
38:53
Because there is an edge from which I'm going to jump into eternity. But we'll come back to eternity in a moment.
39:00
But I'm going to address the question that's probably in everybody's mind, which is, all right, Pradeep, which one is it?
39:06
Verse 12 or verse 13? How do they go together? Right? Yes. Like we like to say at BBC.
39:14
Both. Verse 12 is a command, which means you ought to come under it. If not, you're disobeying
39:19
God. Verse 13 is a reality of what God does. So you ought to acknowledge and thank
39:25
God and live in light of that. Both of those are true. God is sovereign. You are responsible.
39:31
One is the foundation and the other is the structure. If God doesn't do any work in you, which would be only true if you're not a believer, then you cannot do anything at all.
39:42
But when God does his work, you have a responsibility to work also.
39:48
We may not quite figure out how all of that works. We haven't figured out a lot of things about how
39:55
God does. Right? So that shouldn't be a big problem. God is amazing in the way in which he does these types of things.
40:01
Now, the good news here is when you recognize both of these, you can have joy in your day planner for eternity without the anxiety of I have to somehow please
40:15
God. The imperative, the command is yours to obey. Obey it.
40:22
The indicator of who you are in Christ and the reality of what
40:28
God is doing is yours to believe. Believe it in faith.
40:33
Now, when you do both and you have a wonderful day, you look back at the week and say, oh,
40:40
Lord, I live this week in light of eternity. And that victory won't lead you to pride.
40:46
Because, you know, there was God who was at work in you, even as you work out the obedience.
40:54
And on the flip side, when you fail and you're like, I had 10 things. None of those things got done.
41:02
But maybe I did a few other things I shouldn't have done. Do you have weeks like that?
41:12
Such a failure does not lead us to despair. But rather, it puts us further back on God, knowing that I need to continue to rely on God as I live my life as a believer.
41:27
Now, the question and my exhortation to you is this.
41:33
I know the elect here and those watching. I'm preaching to the choir and all most of this and all of this should be familiar knowledge to you.
41:46
And but the question I'm going to ask you to urge you is, do you go far enough in your walk?
41:56
Not far enough in order to, you know, be right with God or somehow, you know, feel good about yourself.
42:02
Just far enough in terms of how you want to please God in the way in which he has empowered you and called you to live a life before God.
42:11
So the first one is, think about what you are doing. What is it that you are doing to work out your salvation of fear and trembling?
42:20
And the second one is, how am I relying on the work of God in me today?
42:26
And should I be doing more of these core and deal with fear and trembling?
42:32
That's the first question. The second question is, are you going too far? All right.
42:38
You're not going to let me off the hook. Right. So what do I mean by are you going too far? The danger that we have is when it comes to sovereignty and responsibility, every one of us is going to lean on one over the other as we face life.
42:54
I've done that very frequently. I become a hyper -Calvinist and say, God's got it.
43:01
Or better select Keswickian and say, let go and let God. Right. I mean, God's going to make that happen.
43:08
Why get worked out about this? Or I could become like a super legalist and say, you know, here's this list of stuff that I have to do.
43:16
Or worse still, you know, become like a, I don't know, Pelagian or something even worse and say, I don't feel good about my own salvation until I do these things.
43:24
So you can just go off the deep end on either side. And that is dangerous on either end that we ought to watch out for.
43:31
The Bible is very clear. Work out your salvation. It is God who is at work in you. So when you say when
43:38
I say, are you going too far? What I mean is make sure that you have a good balance between the two. Those both are true.
43:45
Don't compromise one for the other. Now I ask you, how would such a life prepare you for worship in heaven?
43:58
Sometimes I just think, you know, I just kind of do my thing. And when
44:03
I get to heaven, I'll kind of do the full blown worship. That's not the life of a believer.
44:09
The life of a believer is you've already entered eternity. You are growing in the knowledge and the love and the appreciation of the beauty of God.
44:19
And as you live that life out, you are stepping further and further into that one day when you cross over.
44:26
So the question is what? In light of eternity, pay equal attention to your task and to your source when working out your salvation today.
44:34
All right. We'll wrap up with the last few questions. Those go quickly. So the third question is how?
44:40
In light of eternity, how must you live today? I puzzled with Paul's answer, but I don't argue with the spirit's word.
44:52
This is God's telling us. And he says, do all things without grumbling or disputing.
44:59
Work out your salvation. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And how do you do it?
45:04
Everything that you do, do it without complaining. Do it without grumbling or disputing.
45:10
I'm not going to go into the gangasmus word. I think our BBC knows that pretty well. You know, whether it is this muttering stuff or you're, you know, complaining out loud.
45:19
No complaints, period. I wonder what social media would look like if this was obeyed.
45:25
Hey, we can put those guys out of business, I think. No complaints. And this is not a joke.
45:31
This is just as equally a command. Do not complain. Now, why is this?
45:36
If you go back to Philippians 2, 3 to 5, I talked about the humility, the way you look at other people. And then how Jesus looks at, humbles himself and comes and is born for the sake of others.
45:47
And the root of humility is this, that you trust God's sovereignty. If you trust
45:54
God's sovereignty, you have no reason to complain. I mean, I had whatever that happened
46:00
Friday and Saturday. And the first thing is like, okay, who's really to blame for all of this?
46:07
I need to find, I mean, someone might try to blame me. No, God brought this event into my life.
46:13
I will gladly take it. Don't complain when you trust God's sovereignty.
46:19
When you love God and that love flows into other people, complaining goes out the door.
46:27
When you complain, what are you complaining about? If you complain about any event in your life, you are directly complaining about God himself.
46:36
He's just not powerful or good enough to do what you want him to do. And whom do you complain to?
46:42
If you complain to anybody else, that's like slandering God. I'm simplifying it, but I think it is important for us to do because we have become a culture of complainers.
46:53
And we want to be very careful. I was convicted of this when I didn't think
46:59
I was complaining. And then when the Spirit of God helps you say, hey, you know what? Sometimes we culture complaining in very holy attire.
47:07
Let's be very careful how we think and let's be careful how we speak. So does your faith in God result in a simplicity of intention?
47:17
My God is sovereign and I make my plan. And a purity in affection.
47:23
I'm not going to be looking for all the other sources of trouble when I actually love
47:29
God and love my neighbor. So the question, how? In light of eternity, don't complain today before anyone.
47:37
Your day plan is suddenly starting to look more like the eternal plan. Fourth question, why?
47:42
Why is complaining a big deal? What has complaining to do with eternity? So I'm just going to go sections of this verse from verse 15.
47:52
That you may be blameless and innocent. Here it is talking about your character. How does your transformation to the image of Christ look like?
48:02
Remember, you're working out your salvation. God has made you a new creature and that is now starting to, that pinto which is rusted is now starting to get some body in it and some paint on it.
48:14
That you may be blameless and innocent. You're becoming more and more like Christ. Your godliness is starting to appear.
48:21
You are blameless before people and you are harmless or innocent as doves. Easy way to think of is put the opposite.
48:28
What's the opposite of blameless and innocent? Guilty and harmful. That's a wonderful testimony of Pradeep that made the day for at work today.
48:37
Is that what I want to be guilty and harmful? No. Fear and trembling, standing before God.
48:43
One of the aspects of not complaining works in you as the trust in God becomes real in the way in which you interact with other people.
48:54
For the sake of time, we're going to keep moving on. So the first one that happens for the why is your character.
49:00
God continues to transform you. The second thing is your testimony. And that we see in the rest of the verse that you may be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.
49:14
You are without blemish and you are shining as light to the lost. When God does this work in a world of complainers, you have a light.
49:25
Someone doesn't complain. That's exactly what this text is talking about. You are now a testimony in the midst of a world that does not understand what it means to trust
49:36
God and what it means to love him and love other people. The world is twisted, perverse, dark.
49:45
It doesn't have the light. And here you are showing the straight path because you have this confidence in God.
49:53
You have the power of God that is at work in you that your mouth is sealed. It's almost like Psalm 73, right?
49:59
He looks at all of the problems. He's like, I almost complained about this and God by his mercy sealed my lip.
50:06
And then I came to his house and I saw, ah, this is the work of my God and I can rest.
50:12
The wicked can prosper, but God will judge. I am in the right place and I have no need to complain.
50:21
And when you do that, there is something happening in the midst of the unbelievers. Being pure, unadulterated, how
50:29
God had intended for you to live as a child of God. The last thing under the way is the lifeline.
50:36
You rely on and uphold the power of God's word, holding fast to the word of life, holding fast.
50:44
It's impossible to do any of this without the work of God, power of God in us. But it is
50:50
God's word that washes you. It's God's word that as you dwell on it and renew your mind, transforms the way you live.
50:59
So if you want to not be a complainer, if you want to work out your salvation, you want to hold your word dearly to you, holding fast.
51:08
But there is also a holding forth aspect of it as you are a testimony to the people around you.
51:14
The source of your life, the source of your strength, the source of your truth is all
51:19
God's word. So the answer to why in light of eternity, pay attention to your character, your testimony and your lifeline, which is the word of God.
51:27
And the last question, when? All right, I keep using eternity over and over again. Finally, we have the answer.
51:32
When will your life be of account? Will it ever matter? Let me just read verses 16 through 18 and we'll close.
51:39
So in the day of Christ, I may be proud, this is Paul speaking, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
51:49
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.
51:57
Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. And again, just for time,
52:02
I'm just going to zoom in on that one main aspect. The day of Christ.
52:09
There is a day which is a day of reckoning for the lost. When they cross over into eternity, they will be accountable for everything that they have done.
52:20
That's not the day you see as the day of Christ. The day of Christ that you see is a day of rewards.
52:29
It's a day when you give glory to God for that day planner that you've had and the life that you have lived.
52:41
Those days in time and space that you've lived on the day of Christ, everything is revealed and God rewards you for your life.
52:54
And Paul in this verse says, he gets much joy in seeing that his labor was not in vain.
53:02
That those whom he taught, those who came to faith through him have lived out that life that God has called them to and that gives him much joy.
53:11
You give your leaders much joy that day, but ultimately you give glory to God on that day for the life that you've lived.
53:18
I've heard this phrase of all these different crowns that you receive.
53:24
How many crowns do you want to throw before the throne of God on that day? I don't want to be that little slinky kid that's hiding behind that drum set because I have nothing to offer,
53:37
Lord. I just barely scraped through, everything was burnt down. You know what
53:42
I'm referring to when my work is not done for the honor of God.
53:47
But this is the day that you're looking forward to. You are looking forward to that day when you will see him face to face.
53:54
But the truth is, you don't get there and then work your way back. It is now.
54:00
These imperatives are for today. Don't settle for the past. You might have had a wonderful checkered life as a believer in the past.
54:09
And sometimes I'm looking and saying, why are my examples always five years or ten years old? I want to be able to give a few examples from the last month.
54:17
Last week, about what God has done in my life. Be very careful that we don't get complacent with the life that God has given us.
54:24
Let's press on. And don't wait for the future, saying, okay, one day I'm going to be there in heaven. Today is the day that God calls you to work out your salvation.
54:33
So in conclusion, well, so when we ask the question, when, in light of eternity, focus on the present because this is the day that the
54:41
Lord has made for you to live out the work, live out the power that he has placed in you and the desire that he has given you.
54:48
While you eagerly await, anticipate the return of Christ. If your mind is on the return of Christ, you will make your day planner different.
54:56
So in conclusion, how then must you live today in light of eternity? Salvation includes justification, sanctification, glorification.
55:04
We are walking on that edge and the precipice of eternity. And we want to walk in such a way as to exalt
55:10
Christ. If you fail, remember, Christ has paid it all. You are not walking in order to be right with God.
55:19
When you win, you give God the glory, you get joy, and you testify to others about a
55:26
God who is at work in our midst. Would you plan and execute today in light of eternity, whether it is your plan for work, home, family?
55:40
Keep in mind that we serve a greater master than the masters that we serve in this world.
55:46
Let's pray. Our loving Father, we thank you for your word. Help us, Lord. We need your help.