Philippians: How Do I Grow?

Well, I'm excited about this morning for us because it brings up this really big question in faith.

And that is, is what is my role in change and my change?

What is my role in maturing?

What's my role in growing and deepening?

And then, or is all that based in God?

Like, is it meet God halfway?

Is it I'll go halfway and then God will come halfway and then change will occur?

Or is it let go and let God?

Now, now, Paul, in this text, this text is so great for us to understand because of this issue, and this is an issue that we all feel, right?

Because Paul is writing to a church, a group of people who are struggling.

They're complaining, they're bickering, they're divided.

They are not where they need to be.

They need to go somewhere else.

They need change, they need maturity, they need growth.

So that's why he's saying, hey, verses 14 through 18.

He's saying, hey, stop grumbling, stop complaining, be different, is what he's saying.

So he's saying, I want you to change.

He wants this for them.

But how does that happen?

How does that happen for them?

How does it happen for you?

For whatever that issue is.

How does it happen?

Because we've heard teachings that really quite effectively delivered to us, and in one place we go into a place and we hear a good teaching and we hear it and we hear how we should grow and how we should change and how we should mature and the things we should do.

And we leave and we go, Oh, I I've got to get my act together.

I'm not changing, I'm not maturing, I'm not growing.

I need to get my act together.

I'm gonna get my list, I'm gonna get my practices, I'm gonna get my Bible reading plan, and I'm gonna, I am going to handle this.

I'm gonna get this done.

I am buckling down, I will make it happen.

I will meet God halfway.

Now, we go into other places, we could go somewhere else, and another really effective teaching, right?

And you leave that place and you go, oh, I can't believe how moralistic I've been.

I can't believe how legalistic I've been.

I can't believe how much I've been focused on my behaviors.

I can't believe how self-dependent I've been.

I am worn out, hell with the list.

I'm done.

I'm done with it.

I'm, you know what?

All I do is rely on myself, and I'm exhausted.

I am letting go of all of that, and I'm just gonna, whatever God does is what God does, right?

And we can see both extremes.

So what is it?

What is it?

Right?

Which is it?

And the easy thing to do is just right at this moment to go, well, it's a balance, right?

That's what we love to say.

It's a balance.

And usually when we say that, that's us wanting to control something, us wanting to reason something that seems a little bit at tension.

And the reality here is not a balance, it's two things here that are very, very difficult for us to come in understanding with, and it's more of an embrace of a mystery and a tension.

And for many of us, what I just said is a disorienting reality.

And I've been learning about this a lot lately, that that's what growth is, right?

You're you're oriented into something, you think something, you're told something, you're oriented into something, and then there's a disorientation, a disorienting reality, and then you're reoriented into something else.

Right?

I was thinking about this this week.

So I think it was Wednesday night we had those big thunderstorms, maybe where you live, maybe you had them, big thunderstorms, huge rain.

It came at about like eight o'clock at night, I think.

And so at our house, our girls were in bed, two had fallen asleep, two kept sleeping, no problem.

Another one came out, our oldest, she came out and she came out, she just sat with me, and we looked out the window, and we just looked at just the rain.

I mean, it was pouring, right?

Like waves and sheets, just tons and tons and tons and tons of rain.

And that cracking thunder.

I mean, it was it was strong.

I mean, it you know, make you jump a little bit, even as a grown-up.

You're like, I know I'm safe, but I'm still a little scared.

And so you're looking at all this rain, and my daughter, two years previously in second grade, she learned that there was not a bucket up in the sky being poured out.

There was no hose, there's no like lake in the sky being drained, right?

Because that would be the common thing to think as a child.

There's got to be just a lake up there and then somehow gets released and it comes down.

But then to learn, right, like as a seven-year-old would learn in second grade, you would learn, no, no, no, no, no.

Like it's it's warm, wet air that comes up from down here, up to there, and then it turns into water and comes back down.

So you're oriented into some thinking, and then you learn something which disorients the original thought, and then you have to reorient yourself.

And you know what I'm talking about, right?

Like imagine imagine Pythagoras in the sixth century when he discovers the world's not flat.

Imagine that.

I mean imagine, or just now, think think about the fact that the universe is still expanding.

What?

Like, like like the oriented thought would be it's set.

Now the disoriented thought is like it's still expanding into what?

What is it expanding?

Oh, it's expanding into nothing.

Okay, there's attention that I have to reorient myself toward.

Or I learned this week, Paris Hilton became a DJ.

Okay, apparently, this is disorientation.

Apparently, there's a group of people that love this.

They love this this much, she makes up to a million dollars a gig.

That's disorientation.

The orientation is how did she ever have a career?

That's the orientation.

The orientation is it's over for her.

Like she had her time.

The disorientation is she became a DJ.

Really disorienting is she makes up to a million dollars a gig, right?

All of us just want to go lock ourselves in a closet when we hear that.

Right?

So I gotta reorient my reality around something I just learned.

Now, okay.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because this, we love the idea of an equation for growth.

We love the idea of something we can control.

Or put it, it'll just be balance.

I'll balance it.

That's what I'll do.

I do this, God does this, and this happens, or this happened in my life because of that.

And if this happens, then this will work out this way, and God will do this because of that, or I will let go.

Here, this is what my equation will be.

I will let go and God will do all the work.

Or I'll go the other way and I'll walk halfway.

God will walk halfway.

We'll meet beneath an old Georgia pine, Diamond Rio, 1991.

Thank you very much for a few of you.

See, Paul disorients us by saying this.

And this is disorienting, because orientation would be let go and let God, or I meet God halfway.

The disorienting thing is verses 12 and 13.

You are beloved.

It's done.

And work that out.

And God's doing the work.

That's very disorient.

That disorients you into attention.

Because the orientation would be either I do it or God does it.

The disorientation is the truth, which demands us to reorient into some level of mystery.

Listen again to verses 12 and 13.

Therefore, my beloved, there's the promise, therefore, my beloved, this is who you are, I'm calling you this.

As you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So, to me, two questions just surfaced to me this week as I just kept rereading this text.

And the first is it's like, so what do I do?

Okay, so what do I do?

And second is it's like, okay, so then like how does how does change happen in me?

If all everything you just said is true, what do I do and how do I change?

So a couple of points to get us there.

Point number one, we talk about this all the time here, and this is this all of us work out our salvation.

Every single person who has ever been born works out their salvation.

Here's what I mean.

Here's my nice prop for today.

Here we go.

I was hidden back there because I knew that'd distract you all during worship that big old carrot.

So do you remember, do you remember carrot and a stick, the concept of carrot and a stick?

So so like if you were you're driving a cart and you had a mule tied to the front and in this situation, I'm the mule, I'm okay with that.

And and you hang the carrot out in front so that just every step that the mule takes, he's going after the thing he wants, but he never quite gets there.

Right?

And this is good for production, but it's horrible for your heart.

This is horrible for your heart.

And this is not how salvation is done.

This is not how absolution is handled or value is created in you.

See, the carrot in this situation is that bad promise.

It's a promise that you're always gonna move toward.

And you think, if I can just get there, like if I if I only, if I could just, that next level of spirituality, if I just become a little bit better person, and that next thing on the to-do list, if I only get a little better, if I only get that, if I only get that, if I only get, then I'll be saved.

Then that'll that'll be the working out of salvation.

And we all do this.

We do this in so many, so many different ways.

It's all over the place.

We all work out our salvation, meaning we all walk paths of being saved or trying to at least feel saved from our failures and our sin, our anxiety and fears.

I mean, it's what you're asking.

What can redeem me?

What can absolve me?

Like, what can absolve me from just sort of feeling guilty?

Just carrying that.

And and to risk a really bad rhyme, the the carrot is merit.

That's what it is.

The carrot is merit, and the carrot is in religion and churches and faiths and workplaces and families.

But the carrot is not in the gospel.

That's not what the gospel is.

The gospel is the good news of a giving of salvation to you.

In Christ on the cross, he gives to us absolution, salvation.

We are absolved.

We have a new identity formed as his beloved.

This is what the cross tells us.

It's the opposite of chasing after a carrot.

Now listen to this, listen to this, because the question is this.

The question is, what are we working out?

What is it we're working out?

Are we working out a chase, right?

Like, oh, it's always the next thing.

Or are we working out a gift that's already been given?

Listen to this quote by Richard Rohr, who's a mystic priest and author.

Our carrot on the stick approach to religion is revealed by the fact that one is never quite pure enough, holy enough, or loyal enough for the presiding group.

The good news of an incarnational religion, a spirit-based morality, is that you are not motivated by any outside reward or punishment, but actually by participating in the mystery itself.

Carrots are neither needed nor helpful.

It is God who, for God's own loving purpose, puts both the will and the action into you.

It is not mere rule-following behavior, but your actual identity that is radically changing you.

Henceforth, you do things because they are true, not because you have to or you are afraid of punishment.

Now, you are not so much driven from without, which is the false self method, but you are drawn from within the true self, the identity change.

The generating motor is inside you now instead of a lure or a threat from outside.

So this leads to point number two.

That which we work out is that which that's already been given.

Right?

That's why the order of this text is Paul says, beloved.

He already calls them that.

Beloved, work out your salvation.

Oh, by the way, it's God who works it out.

Right?

We work out our belovedness as to work our belovedness into the deepest parts of our hearts.

We're already beloved.

But we work it out to work the belovedness into the deepest parts of who we are.

That's what working it out is.

You're working it into you.

And you're working it out in fear and trembling because it's just so vitally important.

Not because you might lose it, it's just so vitally important for our lives to work that acceptance out into your sense of security, your marriage, your purpose, your failures, your anxiety, your guilt, your fear, your marriage, your friendship, your sex, your money, your school, your retirement, and even your death all of that, that's working it out, working your belovedness into yourself.

And it's our only hope.

Because I struggled to put together an IKEA desk.

How am I gonna figure out my impatience and where that came from?

I mean, how am I gonna see my how do you see your blindness?

Unless the Spirit of God is in you helping you see your blindness?

Or to understand my insecurities and my fears, right?

And like what carrots I'm chasing?

How am I gonna see that?

I mean, we need God to be doing the work in us.

Beloved, work it out.

God's doing the work.

And so back to question.

I said two questions.

What do I do?

What do I do?

Well, you learn, you listen, you read, you meditate, you walk, you breathe, you sing, you cook, you rest, you serve, you teach.

It's all of it.

It's all of life.

It's in all of life.

The working it out is in all of life.

So I can't give you a list for what it is, but I do know it's all of it.

And I know it's whatever it requires for you to remember more and more and more the good news of your acceptance and your absolution and your forgiveness and your security and your belovedness, because that's the working it out.

How do you change?

Well, maybe your change is to stop caring about change so much, which paradoxically would be a be a change.

But also, maybe maybe your change would be that you haven't ever cared about change and you're apathetic and you need to care about change.

I mean, maybe it's a shift from rules to love.

Maybe it's it's it's to form, but then maybe it's also to form some practices in your life to work this into yourself.

Times to remember the cross so that you can see the carrots.

And maybe then you'll you'll find your identity working itself out, the more centered self, rooted in your belovedness, patient and kind and loving, a non-judgmental presence toward yourself and toward your neighbor.

So, what are you working out each day?

I don't know, what are you working out each day?

Are you working out a gift that's been given to you?

Or are you working out some chase, some carrot or hanging from a stick?

Are you working out the thing that's already been given to you?

So, my brothers and sisters, beloved, you are beloved through the crucified Christ risen for your sake.

Let's pray together.

And God, we thank you for the gift of Jesus for us, that we may be called beloved, that we may be beloved even while we are sinners, and that we are absolved of our sin through Jesus' death and resurrection.

Help us to work out this great salvation.

Help us to find greater and greater peace as we discover and know our identity greater and greater as your beloved.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.