Philippians 2:12-18

The story is told. That during a baseball game the famous Yogi. Berra was catching and Hank. Aaron was batting and that would Hank Aaron came to bat that Yogi, Berra practice his normal trade of all kinds of talk to distract the batter and that he kept saying you're holding the bat the wrong way. You can't read the label. You got to turn it where you can read. It's not going to work, right? You just kept on and on Hank ignored him and the first pitch he hit straight out of the park for home run as he came back around home plate. He said the Yogi Berra. I didn't come here to read.

Now there is great power in understanding your purpose and staying focused on your purpose and not being distracted from your purpose. And that's what the passage that we're looking at. This morning. Philippians 2 is about in my opinion. It's about understanding our purpose and staying focused on our purpose. Look at what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2 beginning and verse 12. He begins with the word therefore and what precedes this is what we talked about last week the great example of Christ in Philippians to that famous him that Paul quote that even though he had equality with God. He didn't grasp it as something to be held onto instead. He emptied himself. He took the form of a servant and was obedient God the death even death on a cross and because of that obedience God has exalted him that at his name every knee will bow every tongue will confess for the glory of God the Father. It's a ball has just said have this attitude among yourself that was in Christ Jesus who recounts that great him. I just referred to his great example, and now he says therefore because of that great example of Crisis continues example both on the front end and the back end of this passage there for my dear friend as you have always obeyed not only in my present, but now I'm much more in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling and if you've been with us on the whole series through Philippians Paul founded the church in Philippi, I that's reported in Acts 16th. They have this history together. So throughout the letter he keeps referring to it God who began a good work in you a famous verse in chapter 1 he will be faithful to complete it and they know he's referring to that beginning that they all share recorded in Acts 16th. God began this good work in Philip. I converting them through Paul leading them to Christ establishing a church there as a witness for the kingdom and he's riding to them as dear friends and now is your And then again, you've always been obedient from the very beginning. I've seen you responsive to God the way your obedient from when I'm there continue to will be there when I'm not there. He's confident of them and he says continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to Will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose do everything without grumbling or arguing? 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 as you hold firmly to the word of life and then I'll be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain, but even if I am poured out like a drink-offering on the sacrifice and service on the sacrifice and service coming from your face, I am glad and Will Rejoice with all of you. So you two should be glad and rejoice with me another thing. He's repeated as in those verses where he talks about. You know, what even if I end up losing my life cuz he's riding from prison because of his preaching the gospel in a Roman Colony, even if I lose my life, that's okay earlier. He said, you know, I even if I die it's still gain to live is to keep serving Christ and to die is gain because I go and be with Christ permanently. So he's already brought that thing up and he mentions it here again, even if My life is poured out like an offering that's okay. We will have done what's most important. He's talking about purpose and focus and not being distracted even by persecution even by death not being distracted by purpose in this passage. His first big idea for them is just as you've always obeyed both in my presence and in my absence continue to obey and work out your salvation with fear and trembling now, we're tempted just to kind of have fear and trembling in our mind and that phrase working on our Salvation to think on the surface. You might say he's suggesting I guess that I need to keep working. In order to be saved. I need to work out my salvation and I need to do this with fear and trembling because if I don't do it, I'm not going to be saved. If I don't do it. I'm going to incur God's judgment and I'm going to go to hell so I've got to keep working out my salvation with fear and trembling he is not saying that at all. And so we need to be thoughtful when we see these verses make a note in the margin of our Bible what he's talking about when he's talking about salvation. He's talking about the fruit of the Salvation. They have already received I should work out what it looks like that I've been saved by Christ in my life and I should do that working out that displaying of the fruit. I should do it with fear and trembling in the sense of fear. And trembling is a sense of all of what's going on. If the Olympics were held in Lexington came to you and they said we're going to ask you to carry the torch. And we're doing this special Focus the special ceremony when you carry the torch the first mile, you're carrying it unlit and it's a moment of grieving and reflection on those who have been victims throughout the world because of the theme of this year's Olympic those who we've lost in war those who have lost a cancer the heaviness of that but then when you when we light at you're going to carry it the second mile and then we're going to focus on the hope that we have that we could become a globe of Peace. We're going to focus on the ability to heal those who are sick. We're going to focus on restoration and Reconciliation and they've asked you to carry that torch on cameras across the globe to cure it that first mile omelette why everyone kind of have a heavy heart and thinks about the seriousness in the gravity of pain and hurt in the world and then to carry it lit to signify this this aspiration that we desire to be a better Nation a better glow better world. Do you think that you might be pretty serious about that moment you think you'd be extra worried about my shoes tied? Am I wearing the right clothes? I cannot trip. I cannot have an untied shoes drink inside right off. The start you would do would be this sense really the sense of fear and trembling in order to rise to the honor of that task. And that spirit is exactly what Paul is talking about. He explains it this way. He says look work out your salvation with fear and trembling and you can kind of understand we're saying why why why? God is the one who is it work? Not you why for his good pleasure or purpose or will do when he says work out your salvation with fear and trembling he sang realize what's going on in the life of the church. It is not simply you or you collectively pushing up your sleeves and saying let's do some good it is God Almighty working in and through us and so there should be the sense of all fear and trembling that God is letting us take that position of Honor. Baltimore for our world in the heaviness of sin, there should be some grieving. I went to a Pastors conference this past week and we talked about a lot of challenging subjects and we had folks come to the podium and share who had been victims in their life in relation to the me-too movement across tarnation now or victims in their life because of racial division in our country and we just heard their stories and there were moments when I left the the the center of the conference center and I was depressed and heavy-hearted and one day I was kind of walking and praying and I was being honest and very shallow and selfish and I was just saying Lord, will this whole afternoon was just a bummer because every talk and I felt like he said to me sometimes it's okay just to fellowship with me in the grief that I feel over the Brokenness of human sin. And sometimes there's there's a heaviness to what's happening in our world the pain that's going on locally and nationally and globally the acts that some Nations will perpetrate against their own people. There is appropriate there's there's that there's a there's a fear and trembling that should have company and what it means to have God's heart in our chest and and two more in those things that are not the way they should be But there's also we heard so many talks about people that are making a difference. We heard testimonies from a young man who was a Neo-Nazi skinhead had tattoos all over about how much he hated black people. That was the heart of who he was and he came out of prison and his parole worker was an African-American woman. And the first time they met she began this process of doing nothing but loving him and caring for him and treat him with respect and believing in him and his life was transformed. He went and have the tattoos removed. He changed his whole heart. They were there in an interview in a testimony because now he's trying to go back and speak to the very gangs and the community. He was raised in just say you got to let go I hate you got to let go of that it will eat you up and one things you said was it is so much harder to hate than it is to love hate take so much much more energy and just Taps Who You Are We heard story after story about that that encouraged us and built us up about the changes the transformation of human hearts that's happening in our world in the Name of Christ to advance good and Advance the gospel until Paul is saying look work out your salvation with fear and trembling why because God is working in and through and among you to accomplish his purposes and those purposes involve waiting into some things that will lay our hearts down with grief. But as we linger and we love and we allow Christ to work in and through us and involves great celebration of what can happen in our community and our city in our world in the Name of Christ and so work out your salvation with fear and trembling his second Big Ideas do everything without grumbling and complaining he could have simply said no grumbling or complaining but the original language he's making it abundantly clear that he means everything. Even when you're in prison like him, even when you're being persecuted, I am a failure to so so don't miss your when I'm getting ready to say but I think about the posture of Christians in our culture as we have lost power and influence and Prestige and as things that we treasured in her culture that that presence of of Christian virtues and values as those are pushed out or to the side. I ask myself have we walked through this without grumbling or complaining? And I think no. Most of us have. Like I have as complete failure as matter fact, we've organized herself. We've created Ministries in organization and collected money and we become professional grumblers and complainers. I can't believe it is still that it's why is it an 1951 isn't what it used to be. Why do they change that? And I can't believe they did this and we need to get politicians to get in there and voice our concerns and we have been the very epitome of what a secular human culture does to respond when things are not their way. But we're told by Paul our attitude should be different. It should be like that of Christ Jesus. Who had the power and the prestige but said this is not something to be grasped and held onto but it's something to let go off and took the form human flesh in the form of a servant and emptied himself. Amazon beat it to God even to the point of death even to the point of crucifixion. You should have this attitude in you and among you that was in Christ. Jesus who live that way to work called to be very counter-cultural. You understand that concept were called to be very different than the average person without Jesus as their lord and savior. And again, I failed at this miserably because the human instinct is to fight for our rights is to fight for R30 you ever fight in your marriage? On every level of our life we struggle with our human assembly struggle with implementing what Christ calls us to and so we fight in the tiny little thing on who was supposed to put the cereal up and why is it left on the counter that evening and we fight on the national level about how politics should be unfolded and should we allow folks from other country to come into our cities and that's going to cost us something. We don't want that and it's all done without reference to Christ. It's just a human argument. We only see things the ceiling is just what we can accomplish this is going to cost us too much. We don't Factor God into many of our conflicts or discussions. And look at the church in Philippi was right smack-dab in a Roman Colony. They were the same sort of culture that was anti-church and anti-christian and they had the same sort of struggles and persecution and lack of influence and being pushed out just like us except with a greater more frequent or immediate threat of prison or death. And Paul says here's what you need to do. Need to work out your salvation. You need to Bear the fruit show what it means to be saved by Christ you need to do that with a guy with a great sense of fear and trembling because God is using us to change the world. For example, you need to do everything without grumbling or complaining.

Everybody says do that so that you might shine. Bright like stars in this crooked world. See the world around us is the one that says I'll show you who has Authority and influence. I've got connections. I can Network I can get a voter block. I can get a million signatures by power. I will show you to do things my wife. That's how the world works and you know, well, you can't mess with the Union they will immediately you'll have trouble don't get those people to yell. And sometimes we do the same thing we use the same weapons. We can do it inside the church, right? now, I'm really stop preaching and gone to Medellin. But in my lifetime, I've watched many many churches Sims simply function as American institutions where power and authority is based on the majority will or vote. And there's not a sense of let's go to the word of God. And what does our savior Christ want from us? Let's find out what the word says and let's do it instead. It's a spirit of look there's some folks and there's a lot of them and there's enough to be the majority who don't like what you did or what happened or the fact that this is going on. And so and if we're not careful, we just govern Our Lives. Our marriages are parenting. Our politics are churches our nation. We govern purely from a human perspective.

those with the most power the squeakiest will That's what wins and Christ is calling us to a fundamentally different perspective. Even as the disciples what can go to the cross and thought something do something. You've got the power Just said, I know what you're saying. I can call down Ten Thousand Angels. In one word, I could cause everyone viewing me right now pinned in handcuffs here before the Roman authorities. They could all be groveling on the ground soiling themselves. If I simply spoke. We're told he went to the crucifixion as a lamb. without a word and I told him Philippians that self-sacrifice is the model for us. Until he gets real practical. Here's an example of self-sacrifice to everything everything. Everything without grumbling or complaining as a way of honoring God has a way of putting his purposes above our purposes. One author says it this way. Why should we rejoice in all things instead of grumbling and complaining these calls to specific behavior or about shining God's light in a dark and dying world not only will be to destroy us closer to God and help us experience his Blessing it also accomplishes God's larger purpose cuz he's called the church to be a light in a dark world. And so the way we respond to persecution or hardship or not getting our way or fear or anxiety should be different than the world. It should be a witness. The world should be saying to us. How do you do that Mitch? How do you how do you ignore all the politics at work? Everybody's taking advantage? How do you how do you feel being kind of those folks that we know or working behind our back to undermine Us in that this department of that sort of stuff. How are you not part of these sorts of things. We should be a witness in the spirit of Christ that resides in Us in this world so that it says we shine like stars in a crooked world. Look if it's pitch dark in the world is crooked what's going to happen if you see a star shining bright if you're outside at night and it was pitch dark and you saw a super bright moon or super bright star, what would you do? You be drawn to that when you that would give you some light. Hey, let's go. We got a little we can see where we're stepping. We're not going to go right off the cliff if we're not going to fall when imma step in between some rocks and break your ankle and Christian are to be these lights of the world that shine and Paul gives us practical examples do everything without grumbling or complaining so that we shine like lights that'll be dancing by to God to work more in our own lives and it accomplishes his larger purpose Paul even go so far at the end of that passage if you remember it, he says even if I die, even if I'm poured out like an offering that's okay and implication original languages. You might be facing the same sort of persecution. And that's okay. We're Joyce one out there says that this way success according to Paul does not require his comfort or even his continued existence. Rialto radical that is that what Paul is saying In this passage is what he says earlier when he says you could live or die in both are when's he's either with Christ permit Lee or is able to keep serving him here success does not require his comfort or even his continued existence success does not require the Philippians Comfort or Freedom From Pain or hardship. That's downright on American. to say that the good life does not have in the definition of the good life the absence of hardship or pain.

Countercultural that is how the opposite of the way we think as humans we think the goal of life is to protect yourself from hardship for pain. I know you don't like the things are most important. I need to go to school so I can get a degree so I can get a job so I can make sure I have housing I need to work so I can have some money. I need to get Healthcare so that I'm never impacted by my help so much energy is spent for this prophylactic kind of approach to life. I need to protect myself. I need an umbrella everywhere I go. I need to make sure I've got pushing cuz I don't have any of those things. I mean completely dependent on God.

Like Christ who had nowhere to lay his head. And trusted the father and was about the father's business as his first and most consuming passionate ask we really are supposed to be different than the world around us. so different that their likes help me understand how you are the way you are so that they're actually coming to us and and really what they're saying is tell me about Christ. Tell me about Christ because they see that difference in our own heart in our own lives. So Success is Not does not require his comfort even his continued existence success does not require the flipping Comfort or Freedom From Pain or hardship and pause music Seth comes by allowing God to accomplish his purpose through our lives.

Back to Yogi Berra, right? Understanding our purpose is vital. And Paul demonstrates in his own life and throughout the Book of Philippians. And once again In this passage, that success is allowing God to accomplish his purpose in our life. God's purpose in this world is our purpose in this world. God purpose in this world is your purpose in this world? Because if you're a Christian youth bow Journey at some point to the name of Jesus Christ. You heard the gospel. You saw the beauty of Christ. You heard the offer forgiveness and salvation and at some point in your life if you're Christian. You Bowser Anita Christ? And you confessed him with your tongue. Robbie's not Lorde Jesus is Lord.

Not what we all did. Jesus is Lord. So if I am a servant of the most high if he is my Lord and Master then his purpose is my purpose. You see that all throughout the gospels were Jesus continually uses the analogy of a master who goes away and says to his servants. Here's what I want you to do as my Steward while I'm gone, right? That's the analogy again and again throughout the New Testament. Jesus says, here's the relationship. I am the master who's going away and you are the servants who are being blessed with all that. I've given you salvation forgiveness air in your lungs Church worship friends family a creative mind opportunity money in your bank account. All of that is stuff that you've been given by the master to be a steward of all of that your children. Sometimes we want to keep our children back from the Lord himself if her kids grow up and say I want to be a missionary. I'm going to move and serve the Lord we are tempted to say no. No, no now sweetie. You're not going to move to no no, no, no. No. No, you need to go to school first get a degree and think about that later one of the testimonies we heard this week was a gentleman it was heartbreaking and I'll get emotional just remembering it, but he you can ask me after the service cuz I don't want to tell you his whole story. If you want to know the rest of the time. It's an awesome story, but part of the story was the Heartbreak he felt when he felt called to be a missionary in Haiti. That he was getting married as a newlywed and everyone said to him no, no, no, no, no. No, you cannot move to Haiti as a brand new brand new married couple is it'll be too hard or too difficult. And so he accepted a safer Ministry job here. A newton is hard. He had said no to what the Holy Spirit told him to do. It broke his heart broken. Sorry to hear the live with that asked me afterwards because what happened to the rest of his life is stunning example of God's grace and what he will do through us. He's continually the god of 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th chances again, and again and again, but he knew he'd kind of made that decision. You may be in that position. You may have taken steps in a in a direction where you said that Jesus is Lord. I'm going to get on with my life just the way I've got it and vision and planned. Are you held back? Your children God is the god of second third fourth fifth and on and on chances at any moment. You may not be able to make a new beginning but you can start today and make a new end to any part or any area of your life. You can give fully to God and ask for his Blessing and ask to be used to advance his purpose because we've all signed up to be his servants and that's a wonderful thing to sign up for I'm about to worship team to come forward. Let me just mention three little points to keep us on Target because like Yogi Berra, there's always something in this world that wants to get us off purpose to distract us again and again, and so these three things are ways that kind of stay on purpose to remember these days these three things first. God works. It's not that the purpose of God in the end. The purpose God wants to accomplish. This world that these are things on us instead of their things that God does through us one way we can get distracted as we can make it all on our shoulders. We can sell all the worlds in horrible shape and we got to figure out a way to do it. Let's get two circles have a meeting and we just put this burden on our shoulders as if we've got to do it all but that's not what scripture teaches or model it is. Not on us it is through us that God accomplishes this thing and our task is to go before him as servants as disciples and seek and receive his love and his forgiveness and his encouragement and his grace and his word and let what he does in our hearts let that be something that bears fruit in our life and too often. I think we just get saved or we get convicted and we just try to rush out and do it in our own strength and it becomes something that is on us. We need to remember it's not on us. Is through us that God works a second little distraction that we slip into is the idea that God's ultimate goal is to place these should on us and is if the goal is for us to obey rules tell the people say Rob he's really good at obeying rules and he's always clean shaven, you know, I've never seen him get too heated at a sports event, you know, he controls himself and never lets his temper and we just kind of sex this is what it means to be a good Christian. It means to be a good person by some sort of subcultural standard. You wear the right clothes you make sure you never you know, I was at a ball game on Charter was about five years old and I was yelling. It was playing baseball cleats like little league, you know, and I was yelling across a fence around me to call and I made eye contact in the midst of that heated moment with somebody for my church on the other side of the fan whose kid was on the other team. And I thought okay.

It's easy for us to take to get to slip into those things, but it's easy for us to think. Well a good preacher would have never been heated that way and that's the that's the standard of measure for my my life. And it's dead. It's not that God has this simplest of should we obey and it makes us okay with him instead what he wants to work in our lives in her heart is good. He wants to write behaviors to happen because we've allowed him to work the good in our hearts. We've allowed his forgiveness to come so fully in our heart that we were able to forgive others. It's not I should I should forgive that person. I'm going to work really hard on that God. I'm going to try harder next year than you sure to forgive them. It is not this should is we allowed to work in us and through us. He wants to bear that fruit of good that good fruit in our own hearts that we fully realized that Christ has forgiven us.

And that we don't have to carry shame for our sin. What it was 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago. At the blood of Christ covers our sin and we're declared righteous. He wants us to know that's so fully that it affects the last Lee the invitation to serve price is not an invitation to serve him for his Blessing but to serve him from his Blessing again. We can get off purpose we can get distracted because we get the idea nor has it I need to do this in order to be saved. I need to do this nor to be in good standing with God. That's not the Dynamics of the New Testament or the gospel. He gives us his Blessing. If you call upon the name of Jesus as your lord and savior, you are cleansed and forgiving forgiving your blessed by God. You have his Blessing if you call upon Christ and you say I can't do it. There's no any Merit of my own Lord. I cannot do it. I need for a Jesus. Then you receive his forgiveness. And your blaster in his Blessing you are his child with whom he is. Well pleased you were his beloved and then we go and serve from that position of being blessed by God not serve for his Blessing we serve from his Blessing and if we remember those things that he works on ask to accomplish all these thing, but it's through us that God begins. It's not simply kind of a list of shoulds so if we get we have a bad day and we come home port and kick the dog, you know, I live I'm done everything that God has done in my life. It's not that sort of dynamic is that he's working good in our heart and overtime, it bears fruit and we are fundamentally different people. poop naturally say

Tax refund we should do something good with that. It's not like we shoot, you know, it's not like a lot. This Birdman going to be in trouble or I won't be blessed instead of just a natural I have this what can I do with her? I've got more time in my life. I saw my neighbor hurting. So I'm going to bring them some groceries. I'm going to go over and talk to them. It just becomes the flow of who we are when we know that and we're doing it from a physician. Have I been already received God's blessing?

The Bliss of the thought right? that our sin not the part but the whole

because of Christ

that is beautiful. And that's what we celebrate. That's what we respond to his Blessing. We've already received no matter what might come in our lives. We can say, I'm blessed by God. He's provided forgiveness. It sits well with me because no matter what I know God's love I know his grace. I know his forgiveness. Even Peter Wright who denied the Lord? 3 * new it all had the golden opportunity to make the right decision and three times in a row publicly boldly made the wrong decision. And Christ next encounter with him. Do you love me? Yes, he let me guess the 11. Guess that's good. Good enough for me, right? Welcome back. Wasn't can you never sin again? Can you fix everything you screwed up? It was do you love me?

No matter what comes our way God offers to walk with us continually and show us his love and it's from that blessing that we respond. During the song if you have a pretty tan your your heart, there's folks will be Folks up front and in the back for prayers are fibbing decision to make I'll be in the back. I'd love to