- WORK! No hypocrisy in my Faith. (Phil 2:12-13)
- SHINE! No hypocrisy in my Witness. (Phil 2:14-15)
- HOLD! No hypocrisy in my Endurance. (Phil 2:16)
- REJOICE! No hypocrisy in my Zeal. (Phil 2:17-18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:01-00:56
I want to be real. We've been talking about one subject in particular as we've been going through Philippians. And what's that subject? Joy, right? Joy. All in favor of joy? Okay. Me too. Well, through Philippians we've seen a call to unity which is achieved through humility and it's modeled by Christ. But here's the problem. Unity and humility and joy can all be faked. True or false? Can you fake unity, humility, and joy? Can you fake that? Absolutely you can. And we are so We're so outraged when we see hypocrisy in others, aren't we?
00:58-01:05
When you see someone else being a hypocrite, doesn't that bother you?
01:09-01:27
Some people say, "Well, the church is just full "of hypocrites." And my answer to that is, "We have room for more." But we're outraged when we see it in others, But here's the thing, if we can be honest, we're discouraged when we see it in ourselves, aren't we?
01:29-01:30
Anybody else?
01:31-01:34
When I see hypocrisy in my life, it discourages me.
01:36-01:43
I'm like, "Really, Jeff, you know better." And you're going through the motions and it's discouraging.
01:44-01:47
That's why the title of this message is, I wanna be real.
01:49-01:50
Now, how many people are in favor of that?
01:50-01:51
Let's be real.
01:51-01:52
How many in favor?
01:52-01:54
Okay, so we're gonna give you a run at this.
01:54-01:57
We're working on this and someday we're going to be really good at this.
01:58-02:10
But I'm going to give you a chance to say in your best preacher voice with conviction, I want you to say, I wanna be real.
02:11-02:11
Are you ready?
02:12-02:13
One, two, three.
02:14-02:15
I wanna be real.
02:15-02:17
That wasn't bad for a first attempt.
02:17-02:21
Let's do one more because I think you're really close.
02:22-02:22
Are you ready?
02:22-02:24
One, two, three.
02:25-02:26
One, two, three.
02:26-02:26
Okay.
02:29-02:30
Then let's go after this.
02:32-02:37
Philippians 2, we're gonna be picking up where we picked off, where we picked off, where we left off.
02:39-02:40
Yeah, nobody got picked off.
02:41-02:43
Yeah, Ken's not gonna get picked off today.
02:45-02:47
Where we left off last week.
02:50-02:52
Verse 12, Philippians 2, 12.
02:53-03:00
He says, "Therefore," therefore is always a big word in the Bible, as you know, because that's linking everything that was said before.
03:01-03:04
Now here's what I'm going to tell you based on that.
03:04-03:23
"Because Jesus Christ is Lord, "because all will acknowledge that, "and because humility results in exultation." And I would suggest to you this one, "Because Christ is real." a real model for us in unity and humility and joy.
03:24-03:40
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence.
03:41-03:42
Let's stop there for a second.
03:42-03:43
Does that sound familiar?
03:44-03:47
Paul said like the same thing in chapter one, verse 27, didn't he?
03:49-03:52
You've obeyed not only in my presence, but much more in my absence.
03:53-03:59
Do you have a feeling that Paul sort of sees himself like the parent leaving the child with the babysitter?
03:59-04:00
Did you get that?
04:00-04:02
That's what I kind of pick up in Philippians.
04:02-04:14
He's like, you know, parents, what's a little, you know, the thing with the babysitter, you know, here's what they're supposed to do, and make sure this, and make sure...
04:16-04:21
But then parents, what's the little speech that you give your children before you leave them with the babysitter?
04:23-04:30
Don't you give them a speech something like, "Look, so-and-so's in charge. I want you to listen to them.
04:30-04:40
Don't be rude. Don't be mouthy. Make sure that you go to bed on time. Make sure you do your homework." Don't you give them a speech something like that, parents? Something like that?
04:41-04:44
That's sort of what Paul's like here, isn't it?
04:44-04:49
Like, look, whether I'm there or I'm not there, okay?
04:50-04:51
Whether I'm there or I'm not there.
04:52-04:54
So jot this down, first of all, in your outline.
04:55-04:57
I wanna be real, work.
04:59-05:01
No hypocrisy in my faith.
05:03-05:05
No hypocrisy in my faith.
05:08-05:12
So therefore, my beloved, that's Paul's way of saying you are loved.
05:13-05:22
My beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is it my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
05:25-05:26
I'm gonna pause there.
05:29-05:36
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
05:38-05:39
We've been talking about humility.
05:39-05:43
We've been talking about putting other people ahead of yourselves.
05:43-05:49
And you're like, well, is there ever a time that I should like focus on myself instead of focusing on other people?
05:49-05:50
Yeah, actually there is.
05:51-05:54
And it comes to working out your own salvation.
05:56-05:58
Because what do we typically do as Christians?
05:58-06:06
We are better at judging other people's salvation and other people's walk with the Lord than we are at examining our own, true or false.
06:08-06:09
True or false?
06:10-06:10
True.
06:10-06:12
All right, don't leave me up here.
06:16-06:18
Ending hypocrisy has to start here.
06:20-06:34
That's why he says, "Work out your own salvation, not work out your husband's salvation, wives." You can't do that, even though you think you can.
06:35-06:40
Husbands, you can't work out your wife's salvation. You think you can, but you cannot.
06:43-06:47
The Bible says to work out your own salvation.
06:51-07:05
So Paul says, "Yeah, here's a time you focus on yourself. You need to look at your own walk with the Lord." Like in 2 Corinthians, he says, "Examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith." Work out your own salvation.
07:07-07:11
Now this word for work literally means continual effort.
07:13-07:28
What it means is to demonstrate your conversion, and without being cliche, maybe you've heard this, but it's very appropriate here, but the question is, if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
07:31-07:34
It's cliche, but I think it became cliche for a reason.
07:34-07:35
It's a good question.
07:36-07:46
If you were arrested for being a Christian and they put you on the stand, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?
07:49-07:50
That's what he's talking about here.
07:52-08:08
He says, "Work out your own salvation." Look at the next phrase, "With fear and trembling." Literally those two words in the Greek is where we get the words for the English, phobia and trauma, okay?
08:09-08:12
Work out your salvation with phobia and trauma.
08:13-08:15
Like, what's that all about?
08:15-08:17
That's not, you're like, that sounds pretty serious.
08:20-08:20
It is.
08:24-08:25
It's deadly serious.
08:28-08:33
It's everything rides on this, Sirius.
08:35-08:40
It's what is more important than this, Sirius?
08:40-08:41
I mean, think about it.
08:42-08:44
What is more important than your standing with God?
08:46-08:58
What is more important than examining whether you really have a born again, spirit-filled, spirit-led relationship with your creator?
08:58-09:04
What's more important? I'll take suggestions now and we'll talk about that instead of this Bible.
09:05-09:12
But if there's something more important than your eternal souls, let's get it on the table and we'll spend our time talking about that instead.
09:13-09:15
See, that's what he's talking about with fear and trembling.
09:17-09:20
This isn't something to joke about. This is deadly serious.
09:24-09:30
So he says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." And right now is where somebody says, "Oh, question.
09:33-09:37
Pastor Jeff, you've told us many times that salvation is something that God does.
09:37-09:41
So here it's saying that it's something that we're supposed to work out.
09:42-10:26
Was Paul confused or did he forget something or is this a mistranslation or what's going on here. I'm so glad you asked. Look at verse 13. "For it is God who works in you, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So the question is, if you look at verses 12 and "Work out your own salvation, for it is God who works." So who's working here? Is it God or is it me? And what's the answer?
10:27-10:30
The answer is yes. The answer is yes.
10:34-10:36
I need to spend a few minutes on this.
10:40-10:49
All in favor of Bible study? Okay, everybody say, "That's why I'm here." Oh man, I'm so glad to hear that.
10:49-10:51
Let's do a little Bible study together, shall we?
10:53-10:54
Listen, there is a tension.
10:56-10:58
There is a tension here.
10:59-11:04
And the Bible never seeks to resolve this tension.
11:06-11:15
And I want you to listen very closely because someone is going to leave here this morning misinterpreting what I'm saying.
11:16-11:17
You can write that down in your notes.
11:17-11:19
Somebody's going to mishear this.
11:19-11:27
Somebody's going to send me an email and say, "Well, you said this or you said that," and they're going to miss what I'm actually trying to communicate from the Bible.
11:28-11:29
So I need you to listen very closely.
11:33-11:39
There are tensions in the Bible that the Bible never seeks to resolve.
11:43-11:52
And actually, tension exists in every major doctrine in the Bible.
11:53-11:54
Did you know that?
11:54-11:57
Every major doctrine in the Bible, there's tension.
11:58-12:01
That's one of the reasons we have so many different churches and denominations.
12:03-12:12
People all over the board on the spectrum, so to speak, but there's tension in every major doctrine in the Bible.
12:12-12:13
I'm gonna give you some examples here.
12:13-12:15
If you wanna jot these down, I'm going to speak quickly.
12:17-12:18
So have your pen ready.
12:19-12:32
For example, here's a doctrine that Christians get wrapped around the axle about, because of the tension, sparked many discussions and debates.
12:33-12:35
Let's talk about your salvation.
12:35-12:38
Did you choose to follow Jesus Christ, or did God pick you?
12:40-12:44
That's the issue of election versus free will.
12:45-12:45
Which is it?
12:47-12:50
Did God pick you or did you pick God?
12:51-12:51
Which one?
12:54-13:00
Well, according to Ephesians 1, 5, God picked us and many other passages, God picked us.
13:04-13:10
But according to many other scriptures, we are called to make a choice as to whether we're going to follow God or not.
13:12-13:13
So do you see the tension?
13:17-13:20
And you're like, well, what do you believe about that, Pastor Jeff?
13:20-13:22
And the answer is, I believe both.
13:23-13:27
And you're like, well, that sounds like a lukewarm, you know, flip-flop answer.
13:29-13:30
But here's the thing.
13:33-13:37
Ever since I was born, I've only ever known two things.
13:38-13:42
And that's time and space.
13:43-13:45
Anybody else in there with me?
13:46-13:50
Anybody else ever existed in any realm outside of time and space?
13:51-13:52
You see, I haven't.
13:52-13:54
That's all I've ever known.
13:55-14:03
So there are some things that the Bible says about God, who by the way, exists outside of time and space, that aren't going to make sense to me.
14:06-14:07
And I need to be okay with that.
14:10-14:11
Right?
14:11-14:13
I just need to be okay with that.
14:15-14:18
God is God and I am not.
14:20-14:24
And if I could explain God, he would probably be too small for me to worship anyways.
14:27-14:34
So is it okay that there's some things about God and about his word that I can say, you know what, I believe that, but I sure don't understand it?
14:36-14:38
Here's another one, repentance.
14:41-14:48
Repentance, you know, Acts 17, 30 says, "God commands all men everywhere to repent." God commands repentance.
14:49-14:50
To who?
14:50-14:51
All men everywhere.
14:52-14:56
But did you know 2 Timothy 2, 25 says that God grants repentance?
14:57-14:58
It's like, well, which is it?
14:58-15:00
Are we commanded to repent?
15:01-15:02
Or does God grant repentance?
15:03-15:14
what's the answer? Yes. You're like, well that doesn't make sense. It doesn't have to.
15:16-15:34
You're not commanded to explain God. You're called to trust God. And he's bigger than your little mind and my little mind can wrap around. Here's another one. The fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
15:35-15:40
Galatians 5, those are the ways that the Holy Spirit manifests himself through your life.
15:43-15:54
But also in Galatians 5, Paul says, "Walk by the Spirit." So the Spirit does it, but there's also a command to walk by the Spirit.
15:54-15:55
What about the Bible?
15:55-15:56
Let's talk about the Bible.
15:56-15:57
Who wrote Philippians?
15:59-16:00
Who wrote Philippians?
16:01-16:02
Paul did, right?
16:02-17:04
and wrong. Who wrote Philippians? The Holy Spirit did, right? And I'm not gonna say wrong on that one, but do you see the tension? Now when Paul wrote Philippians, was he in some kind of a trance? And when he woke up like, "Whoa, look what I wrote!" Somehow God used Paul and his choice of words and his personality and his circumstances, God used all that in such a way that when he wrote Philippians, Paul wrote it and the Holy Spirit wrote it. And I'll be honest with you, I can't explain that. All right? I just can't. But I'll tell you this, I've never lost a minute's sleep worried about it. Never. I've lost sleep over some other things, But I've never lost sleep. I just I can't get to sleep until I figure out who wrote Philippians. Was it the Holy Spirit or was it Paul?
17:05-17:06
It was both. Good night.
17:08-17:16
Somehow Both are true. What about the person of Jesus Christ?
17:20-17:23
Was Jesus God or man?
17:26-17:27
Which one?
17:28-17:36
You're like, "Well, he was both, right?" Okay, well, was he 50% God and 50% man?
17:38-17:43
That's not really an accurate representation of Jesus.
17:43-17:50
Jesus, according to the Bible, was 100% God and 100% man.
17:50-17:55
You're like, "How can you be 100% of two things?" And once again, my answer is, I don't know.
17:57-17:57
I don't know.
18:00-18:03
And even living a Christian life, listen to these verses.
18:04-18:05
Listen to these verses.
18:06-18:08
First Corinthians 15, 10.
18:09-18:18
"But by the grace of God, I am what I am, "and His grace toward me was not in vain." It's like, okay, Paul, so your life is basically based on the grace of God, right?
18:18-18:25
He says, "On the contrary, I worked harder "than any of them, though." Oh, okay, so God did a work, but you're working, Paul.
18:26-18:27
So it's your working.
18:27-18:34
He says, "It was not I, "but the grace of God that was with me." So Paul, who's doing the work?
18:34-18:39
And he's like, "God, me, God." Did you catch that?
18:40-18:42
Galatians 2.20, he says, "I've been crucified with Christ.
18:42-18:53
"It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Oh, okay, so Christ is living in you, So you don't really live at all now, right, Paul?
18:53-18:55
It's just Christ lives in you and through you.
18:56-19:08
He says, "In the life I now live in the flesh, "I live by faith in the Son of God." Wait a minute, Christ is living in me, but I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
19:09-19:13
But these things don't contradict each other, they somehow complement each other.
19:14-19:19
Philippians 3, we're gonna get to this next year, in January, I believe.
19:20-19:27
but he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death.
19:28-19:35
Look at this next phrase, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
19:36-19:39
Like, well, Paul, you don't need to try to attain something.
19:40-19:43
Christ purchased that for you through his death and resurrection.
19:44-19:44
Paul knew that.
19:46-19:49
But you see the sense of, it's that tension.
19:50-19:55
It's God works and I work and it's a compliment thing.
19:56-19:59
Couple more, Colossians 1, 28 and 29.
20:01-20:04
Paul says, "Him we proclaim." We studied this last year about this time.
20:04-20:11
"Him we proclaim, warning everyone "and teaching everyone with all wisdom "that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
20:12-20:18
"For this I toil, struggling." And stop right there.
20:19-20:26
Okay, so you're like, "Paul, this ministry you're doing, he's doing the work." He goes, "I am toiling and I am struggling." So you're doing the work, Paul, are you?
20:27-20:30
With all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
20:33-20:34
I'm working, Christ is working.
20:36-20:40
Second Peter, chapter one, verses three through five.
20:41-22:53
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that through them you may become partakers nature. So Peter very clearly says that God is the one who has given us all things. You don't have to try to get something that pertains to life and godliness. God's already given it to you to the extent that we are people that are actually partakers of the divine nature. Then he turns around and says for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith and then he gives a list. People tend to gravitate towards the extremes. Here's what I want to suggest to you this morning, not suggest, but just ask, "Can you be on board with me?" Can we be okay with the tension? Can we be okay with the tension? The New Testament commandments assume two things. They assume responsibility and they assume resources. Jot that down. When the New Testament gives us commands, those are the two things that are being assumed. That first of all, we can take responsibility to obey the commands. So there's a sense in which our will is involved, but the other thing it assumes is we have the resources to be able to obey the commands which we don't have in the flesh. You can't obey the commands of God in the flesh. You can't do it. You just can't. You need His power, His enabling, His Spirit living within you in order to carry out the responsibilities that He's put before you. And notice even here in Philippians 2, He says, "Work out your own salvation." He doesn't say, "Work at salvation." Like, "Keep at it, you'll get it.
22:53-23:31
keep working at it. Don't have salvation yet, keep working at it. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say work for salvation. Oh you want to be saved? Let's get started and we'll see how you're doing in a year if you're ready to get saved or not. He's not saying that either. He's not saying work up your salvation. Like oh if I can just muster up enough faith I'll get saved. He's not saying that He's saying, "Work it out, work it out." Here's a couple of statements that help me.
23:33-23:34
Jot these down.
23:36-23:42
The hunger in you is God at work in you.
23:45-23:53
So you know that drive in you that you're like, "I wanna be obedient to Christ, "and I want to do what's right, "and I wanna honor God.
23:53-23:57
"I wanna do the right thing." That is God at work in you.
23:58-24:03
That is His Holy Spirit at work in you because that attitude doesn't exist in the flesh.
24:03-24:06
Do you remember, Christians, do you remember when you lived in the flesh?
24:06-24:07
I do.
24:07-24:16
I didn't give a rip about anything except what Jeff Miller wants, what's gonna make me happy, what's going to satisfy my lusts.
24:20-24:23
But when I gave my life to Christ, Suddenly I had these new appetites.
24:23-24:24
You know, I want to honor God.
24:24-24:29
I want people to see Christ in me, and I want to speak in such a way that Christ is glorified.
24:30-24:31
Where does all that come from?
24:32-24:33
That's God working in you.
24:38-24:40
Here's another analogy that really helped me.
24:42-24:42
Maybe it'll help you.
24:43-24:53
But somebody said, "You know, think of yourself as a mine." I'm being in western Pennsylvania, we know what a mine is, I don't have to explain that.
24:54-25:02
But you're a mine, and God has deposited priceless resources in the mine.
25:04-25:10
And our work, so to speak, is to mine out the things that God has already deposited within us.
25:10-25:10
Does that make sense?
25:11-25:14
We are mining out what God has placed within.
25:15-25:25
So when we talk here about working for Christ, we're not saying let's fulfill something in the flesh, we're saying Christ has put something in you, and what is that?
25:25-25:26
He's put himself in you.
25:28-25:31
And our job in the Christian life is to mine that out.
25:31-25:32
That's the work.
25:33-25:33
Does that make sense?
25:35-25:37
What's God's part in this?
25:37-25:39
I want you to jot down five words here.
25:40-26:14
I know this is a lot, but in my defense, I asked you if you wanted to do Bible study and you said yes. All right? This is all from verse 13. I don't want anybody to misunderstand me, so I want you to... we're going to be thorough, all right? I could give you some cotton candy sermon and have you leave going, "Oh, that was sweet," but sermonettes make Christianettes, all right? The title of this message is "I Want to Be Real." So what's God's part in all this? You know, we're talking about I'm mining out.
26:15-26:16
Well, it's all right in verse 13.
26:16-26:18
First of all, number one, jot this down.
26:20-26:21
God is the person at work.
26:21-26:22
Your key word there is person.
26:23-26:23
These are all P words.
26:24-26:26
God is the person at work.
26:29-26:31
For it is God who works in you.
26:32-26:35
Okay, God is the person at work, no one else.
26:37-26:39
This is a work of God, and that should be very encouraging.
26:40-26:44
Because what that means is sanctification can't be stopped.
26:44-26:44
It can't.
26:47-26:52
Just as God is thorough in your justification, he will be thorough in your sanctification.
26:52-26:57
He who began a good work in you, he's going to take it to the finish line.
26:58-27:01
So understand that God is the person at work, no one else.
27:03-27:05
We have a lot of wonderful Bible teachers.
27:05-27:09
We think of John MacArthur and James MacDonald and even some local guys here.
27:09-27:49
wonderful Bible teachers, who is it working you? It's God at working you. God is the person. Secondly, God provides the power. Your P word there is power. That's where it says, "For it is God who works in you." That word for works is the same Greek word where we get the word energize. What that means is God energizes the fulfillment of His own command. He energizes the fulfillment of His own command. So God provides the power. You can't do it in the flesh.
27:52-28:56
Verse 13, "God works in you, for it is God who works in you." So the third P word is present. God is present. God is present. Do you realize that's the distinctiveness of Christianity? You look at all the other religions all over the world and you have this deity that we have to try to make happy because he's out there somewhere and he might be mad at us and we have to we have to try to make him happy? What can we do to make him happy? The Bible teaches that God isn't some detached deity out there that we need to try to appease because he's angry with us, but that God poured out his wrath on his son and that those who receive him, where does God live? He lives in here. God is present in here. You don't see that in any other religion. Where does your God live? Oh, he's out there somewhere.
28:57-29:03
Christians, where does your God live? He lives here. God works in you. He's here.
29:04-29:15
You get that? He's here. So God is present. Number four, God establishes the purpose.
29:16-29:18
Your P word there is purpose.
29:20-29:21
And what's God's purpose?
29:22-29:23
Well, it's right here.
29:23-29:30
Okay, for it is God who works in you both to, now here's two W words, to will and to work.
29:34-29:36
Two things God is after.
29:37-29:37
You know what God's after?
29:37-29:39
Well, first of all, he's after your will.
29:40-29:41
He's after your will.
29:42-29:45
What he's saying is he wants your will to line up with his.
29:49-29:52
That's one of the ways you know that God is at work in you, understand that.
29:52-29:53
How do I know God's at work in me?
29:54-29:56
When your will lines up with his will.
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When you want the things that God wants.
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Like, man, I wanna be involved in ministry.
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I wanna be involved in reaching out to this community.
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Where does that come from?
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That's God working in you, because that's what God wants.
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But to will and to work, not very much is getting done if it's just will, right?
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Yeah, we just all sat around here like, yeah, we wanna reach out to this community and we meet here next week.
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And yeah, we wanna reach out to the community and we're here in 2015.
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And we're like, yeah, we wanna reach out to this community.
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Yeah, do you think maybe we could get out there sometime and like get started?
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Like that's what God's doing.
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He gets our will lined up with his and then he works through us, both to will and to work.
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One more P word, can you guess what it is?
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The end of verse 13?
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Pleasure, very good, pleasure.
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God receives pleasure at what he is doing through you.
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Does anybody's brain hurt yet?
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Because mine's starting to.
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God is doing this work in you and through you, and he's the one that is satisfied.
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That's literally what the word means, it's satisfaction.
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God causes us to do what satisfies him.
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That when God looks at the work that he's doing through you, He's not gonna be like, "Well, that was lame.
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I'm satisfied with the work that I'm doing through him or through her." Can't do it in the flesh.
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So the question is, what is God working in you to will and to do?
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What is God working in you to will and to do?
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Is there a habit that needs to stop?
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Is there an attitude that you need to stop?
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Or maybe for some it's an attitude you need to embrace.
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Maybe there's a relationship that needs to be healed.
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Or a relationship that needs to stop.
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Or as I said earlier, maybe there's a ministry that he's wanting to work through you.
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And see, even going through that list, at different points in that list, there are people that are sitting here going, "Yeah, that's me. Yeah, that's me." That's God working through you.
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bringing these things to your attention.
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So work, no hypocrisy in my faith.
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Can we be okay with the tension?
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Can you be okay with that?
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I'm okay with that.
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I realize no good thing dwells in my flesh.
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I realized that apart from God, I was wayward and dead and lost.
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He put life into me and somehow He operates in me and through me in a way that goes with my will, goes with the choices that I make, that somehow I have responsibility, somehow I have resources.
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Can we be okay with attention?
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Can you be okay with that?
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Like "But Okay, I'm just trying to follow Christ. That's it. I'm trying to follow Christ I'm not a Calvinist or an Arminian You know pre millennial Dispensational covenant. I mean you I Seriously, I just that's fine for people to categorize their beliefs and things like that. I'm just telling you that's just not me That's just not I don't care. I don't care All I care about is trying to seek the Lord, trying to be real.
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So if you like the labels in that, great.
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If you wanna talk to me about it, it's probably going to be a short conversation because I don't know very much about it.
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So I'll just listen.
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All right?
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So work.
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I have three more things and I promise they're gonna go much quicker.
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So no hypocrisy in my faith.
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Number two, shine.
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Shine.
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No hypocrisy in my witness.
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Look at verse 14.
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Paul continues with the imperatives here.
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He says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. So shine, no hypocrisy in my witness." So he says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning." Grumbling. Actually, the The word in the Greek for grumbling is an onomatopoeia.
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Do you know what that is?
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That's a word that sounds like what it is, like zipper.
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A zipper is called a zipper because that's the sound it makes when you zip it.
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Well, this word in the Greek for grumbling is that.
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It's just (mumbles) Grumbling.
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And this word for questioning literally means intellectual debate.
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So he says, "Do everything, without grumbling, without questioning, without turning everything into a debate." And then he talks about living in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.
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And actually the Greek word literally means twisted, bent out of shape.
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from the same word where we get scoliosis, bent out of shape.
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So notice he says, "Do everything without grumbling and questioning because you live in a crooked and twisted generation." Do you see the connection?
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That's what they do.
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That's what the world does.
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The world grumbles in questions.
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Did you notice that?
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The world grumbles in questions.
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That's why he says, "Church, when you do things without grumbling and questioning, you are going to shine as lights in the world." Evangelism starts here.
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Evangelism starts here.
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You know, Thanksgiving is Thursday, right?
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What is this Thursday, isn't it?
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And I've shared this with you before, but it's sort of ironic, isn't it?
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What comes after Thanksgiving?
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Like Christmas.
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Well, what comes like the day after Thanksgiving?
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Black Friday.
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We have our one day a year where we give thanks and we sit around the table with our family and eat squirrel gravy if you're at my in-laws house.
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true. And then the next day we trample each other to buy toys so that our children can play with the box. But honestly we live in the most indulged and the most discontented society I would suggest to you in history. We have everything and we are satisfied with nothing. I read this interesting thing from this sociologist. I really think there's a lot of truth in this, but he's talking about how in our day you see a lot of smaller families. Now before you start thinking I'm throwing stones, we only have two kids ourselves, okay?
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All right?
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So I'm not picking on you, but this is what the sociologist said.
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Many couples in our day are just having smaller families.
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And the danger with a smaller family is that can breed self-centeredness.
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And here's why.
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When you're in a small family, the system, the family system sort of bends to the child.
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But when you're in a large family, the child sort of has to bend to the system.
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Let me give you an example.
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You have, let's say you have two children like we do.
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They get up out of bed.
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What do you want for breakfast?
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I want Captain Crunch.
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All right.
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I want French toast.
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Okay, and you make it for both of them.
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And they, you know, they're getting ready to go to school, whatever.
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You know, what do you want packed for your lunch?
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You know, I want, you know, tuna.
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I want, you know, jello.
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And you're customizing everything for them.
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Now, eventually after a while, they start to realize, everything sort of revolves around me, right?
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But what happens in larger families?
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What happens in larger families?
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Breakfast is at 8.30 and here is what we are having.
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Well, don't I get a choice?
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Yeah, you have a choice.
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You can take it or what?
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Tell me.
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Leave it.
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Those are your options.
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So you see in larger families, typically what's happened is the children learn to bend with the system.
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to say, you know, it's not, you know, what do you want for lunch, you know, for school?
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It's here's your bag.
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So when you have lunchtime in the cafeteria at school, you also again have two options in front of you.
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You eat what's in the bag or you go hungry, right?
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So do you see the difference there?
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Well, the sociologist said, well, that's why children in our day seem to be coming more and more, be coming rather more and more self-centered.
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And then they get old.
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You know, in the larger family setting where the child sort of bends to the system, moving out and getting a job looks like freedom.
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"Oh, you mean I'm going to be able to move out and make my own choices?" But instead what we see are children that parents are always catering to them.
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They see their freedom living with mom and dad, and they see moving out and having to get a job as being conformity.
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Do you get that?
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We went from as a child living in conformity to the house to now as an adult I have freedom to, "Oh, I have freedom to do whatever I want as a kid.
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"Oh, now I'm gonna have to punch a time card "and make sure I dress right for work "and I only get so much time for breaks." And do you see the difference there?
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Why am I saying all this?
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Well, we have a generation that has not embraced responsibility.
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We have a generation where nothing is ever enough, and there's very little thankfulness.
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So instead what we have, a lot of 20, 30, 40 some year old people that never grew up, and they do all things grumbling and questioning.
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And they look exactly like the rest of the world.
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Church, I am persuaded of better things for you. Where Paul says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning." Why?
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What's the big deal with complaining? Everybody complains, right?
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Everybody complains. Is that really a sin? I wish I had the time to do it, but I don't.
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But read through Exodus 14, 15, 16, 17, then read through Numbers 11, 13.
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You see a pattern with the nation of Israel where God provides them, "Are you hungry?
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Okay, well, I'm bread out of nowhere.
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How does that strike you?
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Oh, we're thirsty.
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Okay, water from a rock.
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else? God provided every single thing that they needed. And what did Israel do?
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They complained. "We have nothing to eat but this manna. We don't have anything to eat but this miraculous food that God provides almost every day except for the Sabbath. Nothing at all." God gave them perfection and they still, they still So what was God like? Did God just sort of like roll his eyes on all those kids?
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Can't make them happy. Actually, the Bible says there are different times in their complaining that God would wipe people out, kill them for their complaining.
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It's a very serious thing because when we complain, what we're saying is, "God, you didn't provide.
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You haven't given me enough. You haven't given me exactly what I wanted." It's disbelief. It's lack of trust. And it's sin. And God hates it.
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He hates complaining. Because you're questioning His sovereignty.
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You're questioning His goodness. You're questioning whether He loves you or not.
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So it's distrusting and believing God.
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So why does he mention this here?
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It seems kind of weird that he's talking about salvation and then all of a sudden he's talking about don't complain.
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As you're working out your salvation, or as God is working out your salvation, there are going to be some elements that God is going to sovereignly and supernaturally bring about and use to grow you, to conform you into the image of his son, and it's not a pleasant process sometimes.
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For example, how's God going to teach you how to pray?
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He's going to bring trials into your life, where you have no choice but to pray.
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Do you know that?
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God's going to bring trials into your life where you have no choice but to fall on your face and cry out to Him.
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And God says, "I'm going to use this to teach you, to teach you how to pray." God's going to bring things into your life to teach your greater dependence upon Him, to teach you to trust Him, to teach you to go to His Word.
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But all of these things that God's trying to accomplish in you and through you, to conform you to the image of His Son, it's hard sometimes.
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So we can take the trials, we can take the hurting and the suffering, and we can complain about them.
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That would be a horrible mistake.
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Instead, do all things without grumbling or questioning.
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For you, first of all, because you're a child of God, act like it.
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Do you believe that God has your best in mind?
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Do you believe that God is sovereign?
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Do you believe that as his child, he is taking care of you?
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All right, then start acting like it.
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That's what he's saying here.
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You know, you're a child of God.
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Blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish.
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But it's also for others, again your evangelism.
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Evangelism. When you gripe and complain and question, you look just like the world and you apparently have nothing to offer.
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But when the world sees that you have suffered, you have endured, You're standing under persecution, you're going through horrible trials, and you can come out of the other side of that saying, "You know what?
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I trust that God's doing something with this." The world notices that, and the result is you're shining in a dark place.
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You're shining in a dark place.
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So work and shine, thirdly, hold.
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Verse 16 says, "Holding fast to the word of life, that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain." It says, "Finish line faith.
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Hold no hypocrisy in my endurance." Paul says, "Hold fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ," we talked about that already, that's glorification.
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Paul says, "I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
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How would you like to look back on your life, however old you are, just imagine, God grants you to live to be in your 80s.
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How would you like to be able to look back and say, I wasted my entire life?
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It was all a waste.
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I thought I was doing big things, but I wasn't.
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I wasted it.
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And see, that's what Paul is saying here.
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He says you need to hold on to the word of life because I know that someday I'm going to look back and know that it wasn't a waste.
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So what about me?
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How can I evaluate my effectiveness?
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There's a lot of ways.
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How many people do we have coming to the church?
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How many people visit the website?
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Or how about this?
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How many people are devoted to me?
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How many people can I get devoted to James McDonald?
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You realize that none of those things are a proper evaluation of effectiveness.
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Here it is, at the end of the day, you are a group of people that are holding onto the word of God.
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You know, whether I could be killed in a car accident on the way home today, I know that.
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How effective would I have been if we had people sitting in this room going, "Well, you know, Jeff always says we've got to see what the Bible says.
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We've got to hold on to this.
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And we can't take man's word for it, we must take God's word for it." And that's what Paul is saying here.
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Hold fast to the word of life.
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That's how you know you did your job.
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Whether I'm here one more day or one more week or two more years or 60 more years, what is the legacy that I'm going to leave?
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It would be a church that says, "What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say?" If that's the kind of church we have, then I did my job. I did not run or labor in vain.
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One more. Rejoice. No hypocrisy in my zeal. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Rejoice. He It says, "Even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering." You know what the drink offering is?
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In the Old Testament sacrifices, this was actually the last sacrifice.
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After the animals were sacrificed, they would actually take wine or oil or sometimes even honey, and it's poured out before God.
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And Paul pictured himself as being that sort of an offering.
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It was a picture of being spent for God, exhausting yourself for God.
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But notice he says, "Even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering," what's this phrase?
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"Upon the sacrificial offering of your faith." What he's saying is his life was poured out to develop the faith of others.
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I'd like to close with this.
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You know, joy does not come from hoarding your life unto itself.
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So I want to challenge you if you're here this morning, you think, "You know what's going to make me happy is if I get what I want and I can do what I want and people leave me alone, give me my space, let me just be, live a quiet, insulated, isolated life, then I'll be happy." you won't. Let me tell you as sure as the Word of God, you will not. Joy, you will discover joy when you experience the Lord treating you as a drink offering, that you are pouring yourself out for other people. That's why once again we're talking about small groups. We have this small group sign up. Why are we doing this because we're about making disciples.
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We're about people pouring into other people.
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Like, well, I don't really know if I wanna open my home up or I don't know if I wanna go into somebody else's house.
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And joy comes from spending yourself on behalf of others.
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That's why Paul says, I want you to, verse 18, "Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me." God's doing some big things.
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So you should be glad and rejoice with me.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philippians 2:12-18
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.