Mid-Week Song and Devotional: Faith Expressing Itself

You are here, moving in a minute.

I worship you, I worship you, you are here working in this place.

I worship you, I worship you, you are here, moving in our midst, I worship you, I worship you, you are here working in this place, I worship you, I worship you, you are we make miracle work, promise keep light in the darkness, by God, that is who you are, you are we make miracle work, promise keep light in the darkness, by God, that is who you are.

You keep your promise, you are keep touching every heart, I worship you, I worship, you are keep healing every heart, I wish you I worship you are key turning lights.

Even when I don't feel it you working, you never stop, you never stop working, you never stop, you never stop working, even when I don't see it you workin', even when I don't feel it you workin', you never stop, you never stop working, you never stop, you never stop working, even when I don't see it you working, even when I don't feel it you work, never stop, never stop working, never stop, never stop, even when I don't feel it you work, even when I don't feel it You make miracle work, promise keep light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are.

You are we make miracle work, promise keep light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are.

Well, happy midweek devotion to Redeemer and any friends who are listening in.

Each uh midweek in the middle of the week, we take a little bit of moment, maybe five minutes or so, to have a Bible devotional chat.

So we are in the book of Philippians, we're making our way through the book of Philippians during this season, and we're looking at Philippians chapter one, verses fifteen through eighteen.

Here's what it says it says, Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

So there's a few truths in this passage I want us to look at to grab hold of here in this midweek short Bible chat devotional.

Uh the first thing I want us to look at is just our motives, right?

Like Paul lays it out for us here that there's different motives for doing the same thing.

And this is the thing that Jesus is always talking about there in the Sermon on the Mount.

He takes us from behavior to the heart over and over again.

It's about the heart.

Oh, you say don't murder.

I'm saying don't even be angry.

It's about the heart.

Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Jesus is about the heart.

It is about motives.

And our motives here, what Paul says is we can have motive to do something good, like even something good, like preaching Christ.

Like we can have motive for something as good as that.

And our motive could be envy or rivalry or selfishness, maybe words like competitiveness, comparison.

Those would be motives that are so toxic to our hearts and our well-being, to community, to fellowship, and there are ways of life and ways for our minds and our hearts to operate.

We'll never be satisfied, we'll never know peace.

And yet there is this other motive that Paul talks about, right?

Verse 16, that we would do it out of love.

That the thing that matters, the calling we have as Christians is faith expressing itself in love.

That is the goal.

If you're wondering what the Christian life looks like, what is the application of the gospel?

Faith expressing itself in love.

Is my faith expressing itself in love?

That is the question.

That is the goal.

So that first thing for us to look at is just about motives.

And the second is the complexity by which Paul views a very difficult situation.

You have a whole group of people preaching Christ out of rivalry and envy and all of that.

And yet he views it and he says, Hey, even then Christ's being proclaimed, even then I rejoice in that.

So Paul is not naive, he's not blind, he sees it all, but then he sees even further.

Right?

I mean, we have the more modern phraseology, you know, to make lemonade out of our limits, and even that could be a burden for us, sort of this pressure of, oh, you know, I've got to get to work to make lemonade out of these lemons, got to make lemonade out of this coronavirus season.

I've got to do something great.

I mean, that could be so difficult, but what Paul is saying, he's saying that he actually is seeing God make lemonade inside of the lemons.

What he is saying is at times we make lemonade, but the eyes of faith see that lemonade is already there.

Meaning that God, even in difficulty, even in bad times, even in our mixed-up motives that can be toxic, God can be doing something good out of it.

That is complex, and yet at the same time, we can rejoice that God is not limited by our misbehavior or our bad motives.

I think the prayer that it gives us is for us to come and slow our hearts down before the Lord and say, God, give me the eyes to see my own motives.

God, am I expressing my faith in love to my family, to my loved ones, to my neighbors?

Is that what my faith is about?

Is my faith being expressed in love?

And then the second is, God, would you give me eyes to see what you're doing in these days?

God, would you give me eyes to see what you're doing inside of me and my family and my relationships in these days?

And when you ask that question, get very quiet afterward.

And stop trying to answer it yourself and go for a walk or go journal.

Know you're already beloved.

If you're falling short in any way or you're feeling convicted, a voice of condemnation is not from God.

So when you hear the voice of condemnation, you know that is not God speaking to you.

You confess any shortfallings to even these questions.

You live in the kindness of God and you wait to hear from God what he would say about your motives.

Is your faith expressing itself in love?

And what is he doing?

I wonder that for you.

What is he doing in your heart even today?

In this season that you are in, and how you are feeling what is he doing?

What is he speaking to you?

And my hope and my prayer for you, and the belovedness that you already have and you always have in Jesus, the imputation that we have of our own righteousness from him inside of that kindness that you hear the Spirit of the Lord speak to you about what he is doing in your heart and in your life in these days.