May 28, 2006: Philippians M5: Progress in the Spritual Life: God' Job or Mine?
Philippians M5:
Progress in the Spiritual Life: God's Job or Mine?
BI “Work at it because God is at work”
When Tim this guy I know and his wife Kathy had their first baby… and the baby pooed his diaper, Tim was close by he called his wife’s name Kathy, “Mike needs his diaper changed!” Kathy said, “Finder’s Keepers…” In Tim’s household growing up, it was his mom who always changed diapers, but in Kathy’s household it was whoever was found out that baby had soiled the diapers.
Psychologists say one of the primary causes of conflict in households involves dispute over who’s job it is to do certain things. If the diaper goes unchanged, if the dishes are left undone, if the garbage isn’t emptied who is responsible for getting the job done?
In the end, lots of things don't get done because each person in the relationship thinks the other one is really responsible.
Today we’re going to look at whose job it is to grow and become more like God… it ours is it God’s.
In our text today Paul talks what it means to work our salvation--salvation doesn’t just mean having our sins cleared from the divine legal record, but also includes become like God: in holiness and love…
One of Paul’s main concerns as he writes his letter to the church at Philippi as he’s demonstrates in chapter 1 is the advance of the Gospel: the message that we can be connected through Christ and be made new people.
He’s troubled by the fact that he hears some of the people in the church at Philippi are fighting over things that aren’t worth fighting over.
He knows that few things will impede the Gospel like people who claim to be followers of Jesus fighting and so he urges them to become people who reflect God’s love to each other in their community life so others will be drawn to the living God.
This morning we’re going to look at the process, what does it look like to become that kind of person…
And, I want to raise the question who’s job is it to become this way?
God’s or ours?
If you have your Bibles please turn to Philippians 2:
Do Everything Without Grumbling
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
I want to focus on vs. 12
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Or more literally in the Greek…
With fear and trembling, your salvation, work it out—for God is at work in you…
Paul says with fear and trembling because this is so important…
When you’re about to get married, or have a child, or embark on some lofty responsibility… you do so with fear and trembling because it’s so important…
When we take out the garbage we don’t do that with fear and trembling… because it’s not as momentous (or maybe just the first time when we got the new the roll out garage can with flip lid!)…
There’s nothing more important that working out our relationship with God and so with fear and trembling…
Who’s job is it to work out our salvation? I.e. whose job is it to free us from us sins and make us people who love like God?
Is it God’s job or our job?
Throughout Christian history, there have been some people who have argued that it’s really all up to us.
What we really need to do to progress in faith is read the Bible more, pray more, serve more….
Or we need to be less proud, less angry less, try to lust less often, try to worry less, try to watch less tv… try eat less chocolate…
Some have argued that progress in your spiritual journey is really riding on your shoulders…
And there’s a great deal of emphasis what you do and what you don’t do…. to make that happen…
I remember in high reading a book on quarterbacking by a professional player named Joe Theisman, in high school he was this slender, undersized player and he said if have some talent and work hard enough at the game you too can turn pro…
And some if you can be an elite, pro level Christian if work at doing certain things and not doing certain things…
(or the prep school illustration)
Historically this approach has been expressed in a movement call pelganism…
Pelagianism and “it’s cousins” is a belief that the human will is still capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid.
Pelagius taught that the human will, discipline and good deeds, was sufficient to live a sinless life.
Pelagianism has been regarded historically as heresy.
The view that through will power or the power of positive thinking alone we can become saints is… not Biblical….
And then there are those who advocate that there is nothing absolutely nothing we can do about our progress in our relationship, our growth in holiness and love…
So, just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride….
Make your way to hammock….
Just wait till your “zapped” by God… and you will be instantly free of sin…
“Let go and let God…”
Historically one of the ways this has been expressed in a historical movement called Quietism….
The Quietists believed that if we just came to a place of interior stillness before God with no real effort on our part, we could made perfect….
Quietism considered by many to be heretical…
To not be Biblical…
So, whose job is it to become like God ours or God’s?
Both…
In the Hebrews Scripture in Leviticus 11: 44: "I am the Lord your God. Sanctify yourselves, therefore. Be holy for I am holy."
That makes it sound like we have a role…
Paul using an athletic image in his epistle to the Timothy, said “Train yourself to be godly…”
That makes it sound like we have a role…
But he also prays, “May God himself sanctify you through and through… faithful is the God who called you and he will do it…”
That makes it sound like it’s God’s work.
Our text today says we to do our part in become like God in holiness and love because God is at work in us…
Paul says work because God is at work in you to will and do according to his good his pleasure, work because God is at work even in your desires to become like God and do His will…
There’s a part we play and part that simply gift from God…
We cannot forces ourselves to sleep.
As some of us know firsthand that the more we try to force ourselves the sleep, the less we actually are able to sleep.
You’ve got a big exam or job interview early tomorrow morning and you say, shoot is already past midnight.. the more intensely you try to sleep, the less you can actually, you can’t force yourself to sleep, but there are certain things you can do to fall asleep.
You can go into a dark room, lie on a soft bed, close your eyes… or perhaps like my college friend you can grab your math textbook and put by your head… certain things can help foster our sleeping, but sleep is ultimately a gift from God.
Or sailing we hoist the main sail, furl the jib sheet when we sail there’s a part we can play, but we the gift of the wind to move….
Like falling in love, there are some we can do foster fall in love… having a candle light dinner (so you can see each others flaws) and open your heart… you can certain things and there’s a part that’s just gift…
So, it is in the progress of our spiritual lives…. There’s a part we play but there’s a part that simply gift…
So we work hard, but we rest knowing that God is at work in us…
Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, said when we he was at his best he was in this flow in this rhythm where he is unconscious of time and competition…
He was working but also at rest….
When Shawn Gatlin broke the world record recently in the 100 meter sprint… When interviewed he said, I let the race come to me…
When great athletes are a peak they are working at the game to be sure, but they in state of rest.
I believe this is how we are live our spiritual lives… working at it, but also in this state of rest…..
Thomas Merton was a partying student at Columbia University in New York City. He was converted to Christ and later was called by God to become a monk in a Trappist monastery.
Thomas Merton, in his autobiography the Seven Storey Mountain, describes 2 kinds of monks at his monastery. There were those who tried to scrupulously live out every rule: they tried to make themselves saints by sheer concentration and effort as though their growth in purity depended all on them.
Then there were those who did not seek to purity themselves, as if none of it depended on them.
Both types of people ending falling away from the monastery.
Merton said those who flourished spiritually those exercised a certain effort, but also relaxed, trusting that God would carry them…
In our spiritual lives, there are certain things we can do, and certain things only God can, so we don’t of a take the posture or a marine, but we don’t take the posture of over a super laid-back, beach bum either. We make an effort, but we rest because we realize there are only certain God can do…
Remember, in the context our growth is not just for us and personal development, but so the we can reflect the love of God others….
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." [c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.
As you work out your salvation, Paul says in effect love each other (and it the larger context he means) so that people drawn to God…
A pastor of church I used to attend named John, tells the story of a friend he has who in his words: would not do well in a contest for high piety.
John’s friend has deep wounds that still affect him in many ways. He had virtually no father growing up. His mom was a difficult person. She married five different men, none of them lasting long. She had little time for my friend and failed to give him encouragement.
He's a man now, and some years ago his mother developed a degenerative muscular disease and gradually lost almost every physical capacity. None of her children would have anything to do with her, and not one of the men to whom she'd been married even acknowledged what she was going through.
My friend, however, decided to love. He took her into his home and cared for her, feeding her by hand, combing her hair, and cleaning up after her messes.
John says, I was in his home, and about all she could do was cry and moan incessantly. John wondered, How can he stand this? he thought, I've been given blessings the church, Scripture, family exponentially greater than this guy, and he don't know if I could love like this.
When she died, 16 people came to her funeral. Not even all her kids came. But my friend was there, and on a little toy tape recorder he played a tape of his mom singing a Christmas carol. He talked about how she loved Christmas and how when he was a kid he used to play the guitar and she would sing with him.
He didn't love her perfectly, not by a long shot. But he loved her when loving was hardest. He loved her when no one else would love, and he remembered her with kind words. That's what it grow in God.
Who loves like that? Jesus loves like that. Jesus loves us when you were hardest to love… if he lives within we become who love that.
We to become who love like Jesus not just because we work at it, but God is at work both to do and to will according to his good pleasure.
Silent prayer….
Loved one…
Oh God, Thou who are ever at rest and ever at work, may we be ever at rest and ever at work. Augustine (quoted in Palmer 106).
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Progress in the Spiritual Life: God's Job or Mine?
BI “Work at it because God is at work”
When Tim this guy I know and his wife Kathy had their first baby… and the baby pooed his diaper, Tim was close by he called his wife’s name Kathy, “Mike needs his diaper changed!” Kathy said, “Finder’s Keepers…” In Tim’s household growing up, it was his mom who always changed diapers, but in Kathy’s household it was whoever was found out that baby had soiled the diapers.
Psychologists say one of the primary causes of conflict in households involves dispute over who’s job it is to do certain things. If the diaper goes unchanged, if the dishes are left undone, if the garbage isn’t emptied who is responsible for getting the job done?
In the end, lots of things don't get done because each person in the relationship thinks the other one is really responsible.
Today we’re going to look at whose job it is to grow and become more like God… it ours is it God’s.
In our text today Paul talks what it means to work our salvation--salvation doesn’t just mean having our sins cleared from the divine legal record, but also includes become like God: in holiness and love…
One of Paul’s main concerns as he writes his letter to the church at Philippi as he’s demonstrates in chapter 1 is the advance of the Gospel: the message that we can be connected through Christ and be made new people.
He’s troubled by the fact that he hears some of the people in the church at Philippi are fighting over things that aren’t worth fighting over.
He knows that few things will impede the Gospel like people who claim to be followers of Jesus fighting and so he urges them to become people who reflect God’s love to each other in their community life so others will be drawn to the living God.
This morning we’re going to look at the process, what does it look like to become that kind of person…
And, I want to raise the question who’s job is it to become this way?
God’s or ours?
If you have your Bibles please turn to Philippians 2:
Do Everything Without Grumbling
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
I want to focus on vs. 12
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Or more literally in the Greek…
With fear and trembling, your salvation, work it out—for God is at work in you…
Paul says with fear and trembling because this is so important…
When you’re about to get married, or have a child, or embark on some lofty responsibility… you do so with fear and trembling because it’s so important…
When we take out the garbage we don’t do that with fear and trembling… because it’s not as momentous (or maybe just the first time when we got the new the roll out garage can with flip lid!)…
There’s nothing more important that working out our relationship with God and so with fear and trembling…
Who’s job is it to work out our salvation? I.e. whose job is it to free us from us sins and make us people who love like God?
Is it God’s job or our job?
Throughout Christian history, there have been some people who have argued that it’s really all up to us.
What we really need to do to progress in faith is read the Bible more, pray more, serve more….
Or we need to be less proud, less angry less, try to lust less often, try to worry less, try to watch less tv… try eat less chocolate…
Some have argued that progress in your spiritual journey is really riding on your shoulders…
And there’s a great deal of emphasis what you do and what you don’t do…. to make that happen…
I remember in high reading a book on quarterbacking by a professional player named Joe Theisman, in high school he was this slender, undersized player and he said if have some talent and work hard enough at the game you too can turn pro…
And some if you can be an elite, pro level Christian if work at doing certain things and not doing certain things…
(or the prep school illustration)
Historically this approach has been expressed in a movement call pelganism…
Pelagianism and “it’s cousins” is a belief that the human will is still capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid.
Pelagius taught that the human will, discipline and good deeds, was sufficient to live a sinless life.
Pelagianism has been regarded historically as heresy.
The view that through will power or the power of positive thinking alone we can become saints is… not Biblical….
And then there are those who advocate that there is nothing absolutely nothing we can do about our progress in our relationship, our growth in holiness and love…
So, just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride….
Make your way to hammock….
Just wait till your “zapped” by God… and you will be instantly free of sin…
“Let go and let God…”
Historically one of the ways this has been expressed in a historical movement called Quietism….
The Quietists believed that if we just came to a place of interior stillness before God with no real effort on our part, we could made perfect….
Quietism considered by many to be heretical…
To not be Biblical…
So, whose job is it to become like God ours or God’s?
Both…
In the Hebrews Scripture in Leviticus 11: 44: "I am the Lord your God. Sanctify yourselves, therefore. Be holy for I am holy."
That makes it sound like we have a role…
Paul using an athletic image in his epistle to the Timothy, said “Train yourself to be godly…”
That makes it sound like we have a role…
But he also prays, “May God himself sanctify you through and through… faithful is the God who called you and he will do it…”
That makes it sound like it’s God’s work.
Our text today says we to do our part in become like God in holiness and love because God is at work in us…
Paul says work because God is at work in you to will and do according to his good his pleasure, work because God is at work even in your desires to become like God and do His will…
There’s a part we play and part that simply gift from God…
We cannot forces ourselves to sleep.
As some of us know firsthand that the more we try to force ourselves the sleep, the less we actually are able to sleep.
You’ve got a big exam or job interview early tomorrow morning and you say, shoot is already past midnight.. the more intensely you try to sleep, the less you can actually, you can’t force yourself to sleep, but there are certain things you can do to fall asleep.
You can go into a dark room, lie on a soft bed, close your eyes… or perhaps like my college friend you can grab your math textbook and put by your head… certain things can help foster our sleeping, but sleep is ultimately a gift from God.
Or sailing we hoist the main sail, furl the jib sheet when we sail there’s a part we can play, but we the gift of the wind to move….
Like falling in love, there are some we can do foster fall in love… having a candle light dinner (so you can see each others flaws) and open your heart… you can certain things and there’s a part that’s just gift…
So, it is in the progress of our spiritual lives…. There’s a part we play but there’s a part that simply gift…
So we work hard, but we rest knowing that God is at work in us…
Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, said when we he was at his best he was in this flow in this rhythm where he is unconscious of time and competition…
He was working but also at rest….
When Shawn Gatlin broke the world record recently in the 100 meter sprint… When interviewed he said, I let the race come to me…
When great athletes are a peak they are working at the game to be sure, but they in state of rest.
I believe this is how we are live our spiritual lives… working at it, but also in this state of rest…..
Thomas Merton was a partying student at Columbia University in New York City. He was converted to Christ and later was called by God to become a monk in a Trappist monastery.
Thomas Merton, in his autobiography the Seven Storey Mountain, describes 2 kinds of monks at his monastery. There were those who tried to scrupulously live out every rule: they tried to make themselves saints by sheer concentration and effort as though their growth in purity depended all on them.
Then there were those who did not seek to purity themselves, as if none of it depended on them.
Both types of people ending falling away from the monastery.
Merton said those who flourished spiritually those exercised a certain effort, but also relaxed, trusting that God would carry them…
In our spiritual lives, there are certain things we can do, and certain things only God can, so we don’t of a take the posture or a marine, but we don’t take the posture of over a super laid-back, beach bum either. We make an effort, but we rest because we realize there are only certain God can do…
Remember, in the context our growth is not just for us and personal development, but so the we can reflect the love of God others….
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, "children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation." [c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.
As you work out your salvation, Paul says in effect love each other (and it the larger context he means) so that people drawn to God…
A pastor of church I used to attend named John, tells the story of a friend he has who in his words: would not do well in a contest for high piety.
John’s friend has deep wounds that still affect him in many ways. He had virtually no father growing up. His mom was a difficult person. She married five different men, none of them lasting long. She had little time for my friend and failed to give him encouragement.
He's a man now, and some years ago his mother developed a degenerative muscular disease and gradually lost almost every physical capacity. None of her children would have anything to do with her, and not one of the men to whom she'd been married even acknowledged what she was going through.
My friend, however, decided to love. He took her into his home and cared for her, feeding her by hand, combing her hair, and cleaning up after her messes.
John says, I was in his home, and about all she could do was cry and moan incessantly. John wondered, How can he stand this? he thought, I've been given blessings the church, Scripture, family exponentially greater than this guy, and he don't know if I could love like this.
When she died, 16 people came to her funeral. Not even all her kids came. But my friend was there, and on a little toy tape recorder he played a tape of his mom singing a Christmas carol. He talked about how she loved Christmas and how when he was a kid he used to play the guitar and she would sing with him.
He didn't love her perfectly, not by a long shot. But he loved her when loving was hardest. He loved her when no one else would love, and he remembered her with kind words. That's what it grow in God.
Who loves like that? Jesus loves like that. Jesus loves us when you were hardest to love… if he lives within we become who love that.
We to become who love like Jesus not just because we work at it, but God is at work both to do and to will according to his good pleasure.
Silent prayer….
Loved one…
Oh God, Thou who are ever at rest and ever at work, may we be ever at rest and ever at work. Augustine (quoted in Palmer 106).
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
posted by Shigematsu at 10:16 AM
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