Gospel Driven | Philippians 2:12 - 13 (June 12) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Let's pray together, Church.

Father, we thank you that that day is coming.

Lord, we praise you.

That more sure than anything we know is this truth, Lord, that Jesus will reign.

That one day every knee will bow before him.

Every knee will declare that he is King.

Every knee will acknowledge what we have acknowledged in part this morning, Lord, that Jesus is worthy of our worship.

God, we're so we long for that day.

We long for the day that sin is totally defeated.

We long for the day that you'll wipe every tear from our eye.

God, we long for the day that you'll deliver us from the suffering that we experience in this world.

But God, I pray today, this morning, Lord, by the power of your word, would you draw us closer to who will be on that day, Lord, where we stand before you in perfection.

Lord, would you grow us this morning?

God, we need your help.

We need the power of your Holy Spirit right now as we open up your word to drive the truth of your word deep into our hearts.

And so, Lord, help us we pray.

We depend on you.

Pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can grab your seats, and as you're grabbing them, you can open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

We're gonna be verses 12 and 13 this morning.

This morning we start a new series.

Series called Gospel Driven.

And what we're seeking to get at through this series, maybe could be summarized by the picture up here on the slide.

Here we see some people running.

If you look on the guy on the right, it looks like he's putting in a lot of effort.

He's working hard to run this race.

He's pushing forward towards a finish line.

Looks like these guys, with all their might, are running after something.

Now I know what some of you are thinking.

This series sounds like it's not fun at all.

You guys are like me, you've seen people running, you've seen a lot of people running, but you've never seen someone running who looks like they're having fun running.

Instead, when you see people running, they look like they're about to die.

You ask yourself this question: why are they doing it?

Why don't they just stay home where they don't look like they're about to die instead of outside running?

Well, have you know this series is not about physical, strenuous effort.

You'll be glad to know that this series is about a spiritual initiative, it's about a spiritual ambition, it's about a spiritual effort that flows from every believer when they have truly been gripped by the gospel.

What I want you to understand in this series is that we're we're building a theology of the gospel that tells us that you can't separate the work that God does to save us as believers from the work that God does to send us as believers.

Those who God calls to his family, he commissions for his ministry.

You can't separate those things.

In other words, gospel salvation is a work that God has done in you, but it's also a work that he does through you.

Gospel grips you, takes a hold of your life, and it drives you to ambitious action.

The gospel life, it's an active life driving us towards intentional work, intentional effort for the glory of God.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking right now.

Right now, your heresy detectors are going off.

Ten out of ten, code red, you're looking at the elders, you're like, do you guys just hire a heretic as a lead pastor?

The reason you might be thinking this is because the gospel, you know the gospel.

The gospel is that Jesus was driven to this earth, and it's by his works, not our works, that we're saved.

This is what we call the good news.

That Jesus was driven by an unfathomable love, by an unshakable desire for the glory of the Father.

He was driven from heaven to work for you, that he might win your salvation.

He was driven from the side of the Father, the all-powerful side of the Father, to the helpless womb of Mary.

He was driven from heaven where he bore the fullness of God to earth where he took on the fullness of human flesh to deliver us to the fullness of eternal life.

This is the gospel.

This is the work that Jesus has done for us.

If we properly understand the gospel of our salvation, what we understand is that Jesus did it all.

It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the work that Jesus has done.

But the tension that's found all throughout Scripture is that the heart of Jesus that was driven for us creates in those who believe a heart that is driven for Him.

It's the same tension that Israel lived under in Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

In Exodus chapter 20, verses 3 to 17, you're very familiar with the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:3–17

This is God telling to his people, to Israel, this is what your life is to look like.

This is the kind of drive you are to have for me.

This is the way that you are to live.

This might be what we would define as being driven.

And yet the Ten Commandments don't come to Israel until God has said to them in verse 2, directly before the Ten Commandments, he says, This, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Here's the gospel.

What God is saying is, because I've delivered you, there is a way that you are to live.

Jesus lived in this tension.

When he spoke to the rich young ruler who asked him, How might I be saved?

And Jesus, obviously knowing the way to salvation, knew that this man wasn't driven by a life for the kingdom.

He was driven by a love for riches, and said to this man, Go and sell everything that you have.

And the man went away saddened because he was more driven by his riches than he was by a love for Jesus.

This is the tension that James walks under when he says that it is impossible that faith without works is dead.

This tension of being gospel-driven, a worth echo ethic for Christ coming from the fact that we have been saved by Christ is what Paul is drawing out in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 to 13.

Philippians 2:12–13

And I hope you have your Bibles open there now.

Let's read it together.

I want you to see in this text how those who are saved by the gospel are driven by the gospel.

They're driven to a life of fruitful activity for God.

The first thing I want you to see is that the gospel drives me to accomplish God's work.

The gospel drives me to accomplish God's work.

Notice what Paul says in verse 12.

Listen to these words.

He says, work out your own salvation.

This is an exhortation.

This is a call for action.

There's something to do.

If you're a believer, there's work to be done.

Paul says you must work out your own salvation.

This is a call to activity.

This is a call to each of us to get a membership at a spiritual gym, at a spiritual fitness facility.

To work out is to produce something, it's to create something.

And what Paul's teaching us here is that those who are truly saved by the gospel are driven by the gospel to a spiritual growth that requires work, it requires effort.

Paul's able to say to the Philippian church, work out your salvation.

Now notice what Paul's talking about here at the beginning of verse 12.

Look what he says.

He says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence.

Paul begins verse 12 by saying, Therefore.

Now, if you're a student of Scripture, something that you need to know is that whenever you see therefore, you need to ask the question, what is it therefore?

And so you go back to see what Paul was talking about.

And as we go back, we see, thank you, you can tell that I've got a little frog in my throat, can't you?

Appreciate that.

We go back to chapter 1, verse 27, and look at what Paul says there.

We find ourselves in kind of a the middle section of Philippians, and Paul says in chapter 1, verse 27, he says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Paul acknowledges that if you are saved by the gospel, you're shaped by the gospel.

There is a way that you are to live in light of the gospel.

There's a way that you are to walk in light of the gospel.

In verse 5 of chapter 2, Paul points to our supreme example of walking in light of the gospel.

He says in verse 5, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

And then look what he says in verse 8.

That Jesus, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Even death on the cross.

This is the mystery of the gospel, that it was through the humiliating obedience of Jesus that he was exalted.

So that in verse 9, look what Paul says.

So that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

We just sang about that, that there is a coming day where every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

Church, hit the pause button right now.

Can we just take a moment?

Take a moment to consider the weight of what we just read in verses 9 to 11.

Jesus is Lord.

He is Lord.

That means it's not my work as a preacher.

It's not your work as a Christian to convince anybody of the truth that Jesus is Lord.

It's not your work to make anybody make Jesus their Lord.

Jesus is the Lord of your life.

Whether you acknowledge it now or you acknowledge it on the day where you stand before him, the reality is that at this very moment it is an undeniable fact that Jesus is Lord.

You don't have any say in that.

Paul tells us that God has highly exalted him, God has positioned him there.

Just like you don't get a say in who your boss is when you're hired on in a new company, you don't get a say in who the Lord is.

Jesus is the Lord.

In fact, maybe you should try that.

Maybe you should go in on Monday, tomorrow morning, go in and say, I say that your boss looked them right in the eye, say, I declare you are no longer my boss.

See how that goes for you.

You don't get to choose who your boss is.

Somebody else chooses that for you.

We don't get to choose who the Lord is.

God has highly exalted Jesus with a name that is above every name.

Church, think about the most hardened, rebellious, stubborn person that you know.

Think about the person you could never imagine them turning to Christ.

Think about the person whose heart you could never imagine being softened.

Do you see this promise?

There is a day where even their knee will bend to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

The question is not, is Jesus Lord?

The question is, do you acknowledge him as Lord?

The question is, do you recognize that Jesus is the chief commander?

The question is, when will you live your life at the firm foundation of a belief that Jesus is the worthy King?

And the invitation is in this moment to do just that.

That's why this in verse 12, Paul says, therefore.

What he's saying is having this knowledge that Jesus is the Lord.

If Jesus really is this Lord, who at one one day every knee is going to bow before him, then what makes sense to do on this very day, in this very moment, Christian, which makes sense to do is to bow before him, is to follow him in obedience.

If he's the name above all names, what Paul says in verse 12 makes all the more sense.

Work out your salvation in fear and trembling.

In light of who Jesus is, grow in your obedience to him.

In light of who Jesus is, work out any area of your life that isn't in submission to Jesus Christ as Lord.

And so the question for you this morning is this Are you working out?

I'm not talking about a physical working out, I'm talking about a spiritual working out.

Aren't we so quick?

Especially after COVID.

I know I've been quick.

We're quick to talk about the weight that we've gained.

Aren't we?

At the office at the water cooler, as we're at lunch ordering another Big Mac combo, we say, oh man, I've gained so much weight, I have no idea why.

I put on 20 pounds over COVID.

And then you know the person besides you plays the one-up game.

Well, I put on 22.

And we're so quick to maybe talk about how we're not doing well in achieving a certain amount of physical health.

My question for you this morning is this are you working towards spiritual health?

Are you working towards spiritual growth?

Has COVID not only been a disaster for your physical health, maybe it's been a disaster for your spiritual health?

Let me ask you this question.

Is there anywhere in your life that you are, instead of pursuing obedience, pursuing disobedience?

Is there an area of sin and struggle that you're warring against, seeking to work out your salvation with fear and trembling?

Are you in the spiritual gym, getting your reps in, working out to grow in Christ's likeness?

See, the problem for many of us is that believing so firmly that none of our efforts can contribute to our salvation, which is a hundred percent true.

When it comes to your salvation, you can do nothing to contribute to it.

But we believe that so firmly that we're uncomfortable to talk about the way that our efforts might lead to our growth, to our sanctification.

It's possible for us to feel the need to be so clear that we can do nothing by our obedience to gain salvation, that we feel totally uncomfortable to talk about the word obedience at all, that we feel totally uncomfortable to talk about the work that we're supposed to do at all.

In fact, there are whole streams of theology and there are whole churches that are dedicated to this idea of not talking about obedience.

And that's a concept that's foreign to the scriptures, it's foreign to Jesus, and it's foreign to Paul right here, who says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

See, when it comes to Christ's likeness, when it comes to growth in Christ, when it comes to your sanctification, Paul is very content to speak with language that expresses this drive to grow, that expresses this effort and the work that he is putting in to grow in Christ's likeness.

And so maybe you have to flip over a page, but look at Philippians chapter 3, verse 12.

Philippians 3:12

Paul here is speaking about his growth and he's near the end of his life, but look at this intense driven language he uses as he talks about that day where he'll stand in perfection.

He says in verse 12 of Philippians chapter 3, not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but listen to this church, I press on to make it my own.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

I press on, I'm driven.

Why?

Because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Do you see it there again?

There's a driven Paul, and there's a gospel Paul, and those two things meet together in him.

They're held in tension.

He's made, Christ Jesus has made Paul his own, and so he presses on to make Christ his own.

Look what he says in verse 13.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

But those of us who are mature think this way.

See, this is Christian maturity.

Christian maturity is being driven to live for Christ, to grow in Christ's likeness, to become more like Christ.

To strain forward in growth, to press on towards Christian maturity.

And so, church, let me ask you this.

Maybe you can answer this question in your own head right now.

How would you rate the effort that you've been giving to your growth?

This is the natural outpouring of the gospel.

When God grips us with salvation, he drives us to growth.

Because Jesus has made us his own, we work to make Christ-likeness our own.

Is there a sin right now that you are very aware of and actively battling and warring against?

Maybe it's anger, maybe it's lust, maybe it's anxiety.

Each of us should have at least one, if not many, of these spiritual struggles that are kind of on our spiritual radar at all times.

Maybe you're prone to anger.

And you find that there's a time when in the day, especially when you get angry.

Maybe it's when you come home from work, you haven't eaten in a long time, you're experiencing some hanger.

What are you doing to fight with that sin?

What are you doing to battle against that sin that is in your life?

Maybe it's asking brothers and sisters to pray for you.

Maybe it's asking them to keep you accountable.

Maybe it's memorizing scripture, meditating on scripture, praying for God to strengthen and support you, turning to forgive the forgiveness that's offered in Jesus when you mess up.

The reality is, no matter what it is, Paul calls us to work out our salvation.

Be working towards growth in Christ.

I feel the need just to be so overwhelmingly clear on this, that this gospel-driven effort that Paul's talking about, when he says, work out your own salvation, it's not an effort to earn or attain salvation.

It's an effort to grow into a salvation that's already ours.

Paul isn't saying, you better prove that you're really a child of God by your works.

Paul isn't saying, you know, God's waiting for some evidence.

You better, you better really perform well this month and show him that you're a child of God.

Paul's calling us to work out a salvation that is already ours.

Church, we can praise God that this text doesn't say work for your salvation.

It doesn't say work in order that you might be saved.

It says work out your salvation.

In fact, this truth can, in this moment, you can just allow this truth to cause your heart to rejoice that because of who Jesus is, because of what Jesus has done, there's no work to be done.

There's nothing that you can do to prove your love to the Father because Jesus has done it all.

The task is completely finished.

That's why Jesus on the cross cried those words, it is finished.

Every work that you needed to accomplish in order to be saved by God has been accomplished by Jesus Christ.

There is nothing left to prove, there is nothing left to earn.

God has won your salvation.

When it comes to your salvation, there's nothing left to work out.

It is complete.

This is why Paul phrases this question like, or sorry, this exhortation like this.

He says, work out your own salvation.

See, the thing that you are to work out is something that is already your own.

This salvation, in order for you to work it out, in order for you to grow in Christ's likeness, it needs to be a salvation that is already yours by faith.

This is a call to work out a salvation that's already been completed in you.

It's already been worked in you.

This is the call of Christian growth.

It's a call to become who we already are in Jesus Christ, who we've already become in him.

The call to Christian growth, the call to sanctification is the call to decrease the gap between who we are right now and who we're gonna be on that day we just sung about, where we stand before Jesus and all of our sins are cast away, and we stand in perfection before him.

This is a call to growth that we are to take upon ourselves.

It's also a call that we can't force on anybody else.

You notice that it says almost awkwardly, work out your own salvation.

So as to say, you can't work out anyone else's salvation for them.

You can't force your husband or wife to grow.

You can't force your child to be more mature.

In fact, Apostle Paul, one of the greatest ministers in the life of the church, said these words, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

It's God who gives the growth.

This is why Paul says we're to work out our salvation.

He doesn't end there.

He says, with fear and trembling.

Paul says we're to work, we're accomplishing God's work with fear and trembling.

This fear and trembling, it's not the fear and trembling you get when you're driving and immediately see the flashing of a police light behind you and you think, oh no, what have I done?

This is the way that we're supposed to live for Jesus.

We're not supposed to live for Jesus like there's this impending doom coming.

Like judgment could come at any point.

That's not gospel-driven at all.

In fact, that's gospel-less.

This type of living where we feel like at any point God is gonna come down on us with a hammer is completely gospel-less.

That's not what Paul's talking about when he says fear that we're to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

The fear and trembling that Paul's talking about here is more of the kind of fear and trembling we have when we fear that we might do something unloving to a person that we actually love deeply.

It's a fear of disrespecting a person that we actually admire greatly.

It's a fear of hurting a person who we feel deserves only the best.

It's not a dread and a terror, but an awe and wonder at the greatness of God, all that he has done for us in accomplishing our salvation that drives us to a life lived in obedience for Him.

This is what Paul is calling you to do, to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

This is where many of us go wrong when we think about our growth in Christ we we try to grow without the gospel.

We battle sin without the gospel.

We battle sin as though if I don't get a hold of this anger, if I don't get a hold of this lust, if I don't get a hold of this anxiety, then God's really gonna, He's not gonna love me.

He's not gonna save me.

He's not gonna want me, He's not gonna want to be present in my life.

We battle sin without the gospel.

See, the gospel isn't that no matter what you do, you are forgiven for all your past sins, forgiven for all your present sins, and you will be forgiven for all your future sins.

This is the foundation of victory that you fight sin with, that no matter what, you are forgiven, you're already saved.

See, the father is the not the kind of parent.

Sorry, the father is the kind of parent who wants to see us excel.

And some of us live as though God's grace is good enough to save us, but not good enough to grow us.

Like God wants to get us into the house, He wants to get us into the church, but once once we're here, we better shape up our lives.

We better do better.

Father's not the kind of parent who treats strangers in the house better than their own children.

You remember that as a kid?

You've been like living on rice krispies for weeks.

Suddenly your friend comes over and the devil-stuffed Oreos come out, and you're like, what's going on here?

Hung them, this person who's been here for a few minutes is being treated better than I am.

Well, your parents know that's because you would have eaten all those in one sitting, and so they save it for a special occasion.

That's not the way God is with his grace.

See, some of us think God is so gracious when it comes to the beginning of our walk with him, but when it comes to our grow our growth, he's just standing over us, waiting for us to, we better grow.

I love what Tim Keller says.

He says that the gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life, and this sounds a lot better if you're American.

He says the gospel is the A through Z of Christian life.

Let me just make that Canadian, the A through Z of the Christian life.

The gospel is how we are saved, the gospel is how we grow.

God is as gracious to us in our sin as he is to us in our growth.

This is the foundation for the gospel-driven life: that God is for us.

We grow with a fear and trembling because of the awe of the gospel, not because of fear that he's going to come down on us in judgment.

Which brings us to our second point.

The gospel drives me by God's accomplished work.

So, your first point was that the gospel drives me to accomplish God's work.

This is what we're speaking about when we use the word drive, that the gospel leads to a driven life.

But the second thing I want you to see, and that Paul is showing us, is that the gospel drives me by God's accomplished work, that you can't accomplish any of this work if it's not God working in you first.

Look what he says in verse 13.

He says, For it, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

See, the reason for our working, the reason for our effort, the reason we have drive as Christians is all because of God's working.

It's all because of God's effort in us.

It's all because of God's drive towards us.

We're driven to gospel-driven work on a foundation of God's work, on a foundation of something that God is already doing in us.

The believer works, knowing that God has already initiated a work in them, knowing that God is already sustaining a work in them, and knowing that God is going to bring to completion the work that He has begun in them.

And so notice that God's work is the motivation for our work.

The reason why we can go forward and pursue a gospel-driven life is because God has already committed to working in us.

This is why Paul begins verse 13 with this word, for.

Why is it that you are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling?

This is what Paul says, for God is working in you.

The motivation for a gospel-driven life is the fact that God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Paul here is explaining the grounds for our working, the motivation for the gospel-driven life.

The promise is that God is going to work.

Now, this promise saves us from two attitudes that often keep us from really living for Christ.

That often keep us from accomplishing great things for the kingdom.

The first gospeless attitude that this truth saves us from is the attitude of gospeless legalism.

If you're taking notes, it's good to write this down that the attitude that God's saving us from here is the attitude of gospeless legalism.

See, legalism is the belief that your works, the way that you live, has bearing on the way that God views you.

Legalism believes that when we are righteous, God will finally be happy with us.

When we're sinning, that God is brought to great anger and leaves our life completely.

Now it is true that righteousness brings great pleasure to God, just like the obedience of our sons and daughters brings pleasure to us, but it's not true that your works can change your standing with God.

That's gospel-less.

Our works have no bearing on our standing with God.

The reality of the gospel is that we need works to be saved, but it's not our works we need.

We need the works of a perfect man, and that man's name was Jesus Christ.

And he came and he lived the completely perfect, the completely righteous life.

Christ is the one who never sinned.

And the legalist does everything they can do to get their life in check before God, and yet they will always drop the ball.

And there was one man who came and never sinned against God.

Not only that, he always obeyed the will of God perfectly.

He always pursued the will of God in complete perfection.

Despite the knowledge of the gospel truth, many of us are often driven to work for Christ in a spirit of legalism.

And so ask your ask yourself right now, the things that you do in your life for Christ, whether it's Bible reading or praying or talking to your neighbor about Christ or serving in the church, why are you doing those things?

I just believe if we were to uncover the heart behind many of us, that the reason why we do these things is because there is this kind of deep belief that we may never have voice, but that if we do these things, God's gonna be more happy with us.

The right motivation is serving Christ in life, whether it's in church or in our personal disciplines, it can't be legalism.

Paul's exposing it here, it's saying it can't be legalism.

The right motivation to living for Christ is the work that God is doing in us.

First gospeless attitude we're saved from is the gospeless attitude of legalism, but the second gospeless attitude we're saved from is the attitude of lethargy.

See, maybe there's some in here, you don't you don't struggle with legalism.

In fact, you might laugh at those who do because they just don't understand the gospel.

You can't believe that they don't understand the gospel of free grace.

But it is possible that instead of struggling with legalism, the pendulum has swung all the way to the other side, and now you just there's no place in your life for works.

There's no place in your life to talk about obedience.

Instead of living for Christ, you've taken a life of lethargy, doing nothing for Christ, knowing that you'll be forgiven in the end.

But I want you to see this morning that this lethargy is so far from the type of salvation that God wants to work in us, that Paul's pointing us to in verse 11, when he says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

When the gospel takes hold of a life, it roots out all lethargy and it fires up our hearts for the work that God wants to do through us for the sake of his glory, for the purpose of his kingdom.

What Paul's talking here about here is not a gospeless legalism, it's not a gospeless lethargy.

Paul's exposing a gospel livelihood.

It's an understanding that when we truly understand the gospel, we're driven to effort and work for Christ.

See, our salvation, it doesn't condemn us to legalistic work, it doesn't free us to lethargy.

The work Christ does to save us, it motivates us to this gospel livelihood.

And that's what Paul's saying here in verse 14.

He says, For it is God who works in you.

And so what's the motivation for our work?

It's exactly this in verse 13.

It is God who works in you.

It is God who works in you for his good pleasure.

Christian, who was it when you first believed that entered into your heart?

It was the power of the Holy Spirit.

In that moment, your heart was changed.

You were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

So that now the one that is working in you, it's not the measly efforts of humans, of the human heart, it is the power of the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in you.

The thing that should motivate you in this very moment to live for Christ, to be motivated to be driven for the gospel is the fact that it is the same God who spoke the world into existence that dwells in your heart and in your soul.

The same God who, by his powerful word, created everything dwells in you if your faith is in Jesus Christ.

This should motivate you when you think about the difficult things that God has called you to do.

You're equipped with a power that's great enough to win the battle.

You have all the equipment that you need as a Christian to do all the things that God has called you to do.

Those who God calls, God equips.

Equipment is an important thing, isn't it?

I learned a few years ago I um decided to do an Olympic triathlon.

And I work out, but I definitely don't do anything that's like long distance like that.

And so I said, I'm not gonna really train for it, I'm just gonna see if I can do it.

And you already kind of know where the story's going, don't you?

I mean, I can bike, like I can keep a bike balanced, but I wouldn't say that I'm a biker.

I can run away from like someone who's maybe trying to chase me, but I wouldn't say I'm a I'm a runner.

I can swim in a way that I'm not gonna drown, but I wouldn't say I'm a swimmer.

And so for whatever reason, with all of these truths about myself, I decided that uh Olympic marathon would be a good thing for me.

And so I finished the swim, and the swim was supposed to be at one and a half kilometers, it was probably longer because for a long period of time I swam the wrong direction.

I lifted up my head and I looked and everyone was gone, which is not the way it's supposed to be.

I got on the bike and I started biking, and I said, Alright, well, I'm not a swimmer, so I'm gonna start biking people down.

So I started biking people down, and on kilometer eight of kilometer 40, one of my pedals broke off.

And there was nothing that I could do to finish, and so I biked 32 kilometers with one leg.

Now, one of the things that's exciting about biking 32 kilometers is that you get to see everybody in the race.

I started in one of the front packs, and so I got to see the front pack pack, like these are like the professional triathlon athletes.

I got to see them pass me.

And these guys, I don't know if you've ever been a part of a triathlon, you're one of these weird people probably, but these guys look really crazy.

They got these bikes that weigh as much as your dinner fork.

They got these helmets that they look honestly like aliens.

You'd think they just stepped off in a UFO, but they're super aerodynamic.

Everything, everything is dialed in about their equ for with their equipment so that they can win this race.

There's no extra weight.

They're here to win.

They have the equipment to prove it.

But then you get to see everybody pass you.

And I finished the race with the people who were in last place.

And those people, it looks like they weren't even prepared for a triathlon.

It looks like the day before someone said, Hey, you're going to triathlon.

So they said, Alright, I better go to Goodwill and find myself a bike, and I better put this helmet on that doesn't really fit me.

And it looks like they're just out for a leisurely stroll.

And you see, the people in first place are working with a different equipment than the people in last place.

And what God is showing us in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13 is that as a Christian, you are working with the greatest power there is.

Philippians 2:12

The power is God in you.

You have all that you need to be able to do all that God has called you to do.

I wonder what sin you walked in with this morning feeling like you couldn't overcome, only to be reminded by God that it's God's power that's working in you.

What power is available to transform you into the husband or the wife that God calls you to be, into the mother or the father that God calls you to be?

It's God's power that is working within you.

What power is working within you when you feel like you're facing a trial that is insurmountable, when you feel like you're suffering to such a degree that you just no longer can tread water.

It is the power of God working within you.

What's the power that equips you to serve the church in a way that radically influences others' lives?

It's the power of God that is working within you.

What's the work that God is doing in you?

Paul shows us, he says it's God who works in you.

Look what he does, both to will and to work, both to will and to work.

God is working in our will so that if you have ever desired to bring glory to him, in your heart, if you have ever desired to honor him, do you know who put that desire there?

It is God alone.

Only God can do that in a sinful, wretched heart.

Only God can put the desire to live for his glory.

He's shaping our will.

Paul says it's God who's working in us to work.

That means that any work we've ever done has only been done on the foundation of God's work within us.

We only work because He first worked in us.

We only love because He first loved us.

That means that any work we do as a Christian, any work we do as a church, it must be done on the foundation of God's work.

He's working in us to will and to work, so that our work is entirely dependent on him.

Our work is the cause of the work that he is doing in us.

This is why so much of our gospel drive needs to come from a dependence on God, because at the end of the day, it's all God's work that he does in those who have placed their faith in him.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13 is the theology behind the prayer night that we're having on Tuesday.

Philippians 2:12

To say that if we want to do any work as a church, if we want to be driven as a church to accomplish anything that's of value, we need to acknowledge that it's God who both wills and works in our hearts to make that work possible in us.

The reason why we need a prayer night is because we need God to show up in this church.

We need God to show up in our lives so that he can will and work for his good pleasure.

Church of the Gospel is this good news that through Christ, all the power is available to you to live the gospel-driven life.

Johnny Erickson Tada is a Christian writer who suffered an injury as a teenager and has lived for decades as a paraplegic.

And in her devotional called Glorious Intruder, she tells a story of a man who was in the hospital and he was hindered by a severe limp.

And she'd see him every morning hobbling down the hallway, needing to use a walker because his joints were lame.

And she wondered about the day that he would finally be recovered.

The day finally came when the surgeons opened him up, and the lameness was cured.

Now, nearly for a year after that successful surgery, Johnny continued to see this man, and this man continued to limp past her door.

And so one day she greeted him, saw him using his cane, still limping, and she cried with him for a moment and commented that it's a shame that the surgery didn't take place.

In fact, she was kind of disgruntled by it, so she brought it up to the doctor one day, the surgeon who did the surgery, and the surgeon shook his head as Johnny said, It's a shame that that surgery didn't take place.

And he the surgeon shook his head, he said, Oh, but it did take.

You see, the man, he limps out of nothing more than habit.

And this man had been fully cured, fully healed, but there were habits that were so deep in him that he still had to work out.

He still had to learn to walk.

And in very many ways, Christian, this is the good news that you have been healed.

If your faith is in Jesus Christ, you've been cleansed.

The power is within you to live the life that God calls you to live.

You're set free to live with Christ.

The only question remaining is will you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure?

Will you live the gospel-driven life?

Let's pray.

Father, God thank you for the gospel.

God thank you for the work that you have done through Christ.

That it isn't it's not a work that's irrelevant because it happened 2,000 years ago.

Lord, it's a work that is very relevant because it's happening right now as you work in us both to will and to work for your good pleasure.

And so, God, I pray right now that even as we worship, even as we respond to you with this closing song, Lord, would would this work be so relevant to us?

God, would this work compel us to worship you with hearts that are on fire for all that you have done for us, to exalt you with the praise that is due your name, to give you the honor that you are worthy of being honored with.

We praise you for all that you are doing in us, and we ask for your help, Lord.

I pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.