Piece of Work: Philippians 2:12-18 (Joyfully Grow)

Well, it is so good to see you.

Before you have a seat, look at somebody and say it's warmer in here.

Go ahead and tell them it's warmer in here.

I don't know what it was out there, but it is definitely warmer in here.

I want to tell you, I don't know who you are, but if you are the one who has been praying for one more uh spout of cold weather, if you'd stop by the welcome center, first of all, someone's gonna hit you.

And then we want you to pray for some other stuff because the Lord is apparently listening to your prayers, all right?

And is that you go ahead and start praying for spring, if that'd be all right.

Uh, it is so good to see you on this wonderful spring morning that we have.

And it is good to be in the house of the Lord.

And for some of you who are watching online that you weren't able to make it out today, uh it is good to have you with us.

And we are gonna drink all the hot coffee so you don't have any, okay?

And it is good to see everybody here.

If you got your Bibles, want to open up with me to uh Philippians chapter two.

We are going to be continuing the fourth part of our series on Philippians called Peace of Work.

And we're going to dig into that just a little bit here in a little while.

But just to kind of catch you up with that real quick, where I grew up, piece of work was not necessarily a good thing.

And it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

It was just, I don't know what to do with you, okay?

You're just a piece of work.

We'd also say, man, you're just something else right there.

But look at somebody and tell them, you're just a piece of work.

And let them decide if that's a good thing or not, all right?

And and what we're talking about is that it is a good thing.

And we're gonna dig a little bit deeper into that in just a moment.

But also while you're getting all your message notes and everything out, if this is your first time joining us, I want to ask you to take just a moment before you leave today to fill out your connect card and you can drop that off at the Welcome Center.

We have a free gift for you today, and we want to invite you to the craziest party you're gonna be part of all week long or all month long called RLC Connect, and to give you that opportunity to show once again why you are a piece of work.

And I'm just taking every opportunity to call all of y'all that as much as I possibly can, all right?

And also want to tell you, even if it is the Arctic tundra, and let me use as many winter jokes as I can.

I'm from Alabama, okay?

So this isn't supposed to happen.

And so I'm still, I've been living here for 15 years.

I'm still not used to it yet.

So just give me a break with that.

But even if it is the Arctic tundra, I've got really good news for you.

And that is that this can still be your best year ever if somebody say if, if it's your best year spiritually.

I don't know what else may be going on in your life, but I know that making your focus about God is not gonna make it any worse.

But actually, it can be your best year ever if it's your best year spiritually.

And that's why I think it's so important that we take time to just dig in and discover the good news that is in the book of Philippians, because I think it's got something to tell us on how we can have our best year ever because we're gonna have that year with the Lord.

With that being said, I asked this question last week, and I actually had a lot of uh stories attached to this.

But how many of you have ever just been around somebody that they just have the gift of discouragement?

Anyone?

Not the gift of discernment, the gift of discouragement.

They're a negative Nancy.

They can rain on any parade.

They are the Debbiest downer you've ever met.

How many sitting beside a Debbie Downer right now?

Anybody brave enough?

Yes, I see a few of those.

Yes, go ahead and put your hands down quickly before you get hit.

I know.

How many of you have seen the opposite?

Have you ever been somebody, been around somebody who just brings their own sunshine?

They're just happy all the time.

They're singing, I got the joy, joy, joy.

How many wants to claim that they are that person?

How many just anybody, any honest?

No, one person, and we don't believe him at all.

Okay, yes.

Okay, so so here's here's the thing.

Here's the thing that it doesn't really matter whether you are or not.

It's what matters is what you choose to be, right?

You can choose to look at your surroundings and define them as what's wrong in your life or by what God is doing in your life.

And it is amazing to see that that's exactly what the apostle Paul is doing.

Because while all these other things are going on, this would be a really good example of what he looks like.

Like it would seem as though everything is on fire and he's sitting there going, This is fine.

Everything is okay.

And if we're not careful, we can forget, we can think that the apostle Paul, you know, is sitting in a coffee shop with his, you know, his pumpkin spice latte, because it does feel like it's before Christmas, or he is on some beach somewhere with his tropical smoothie.

I don't know.

But we got to remember that Paul is in jail.

It's 61 A.D., during the time of a horrible persecution that has started against the early church.

And he is on basically death row in Rome, waiting to meet with Caesar, who can immediately put him to death or set him free.

And he is there in this horrible place, and he's talking to people that are some of his oldest friends.

Probably the first church he planted, especially in the in the area that they are, is the church at Philippi.

It's a small church between 25 and 50 people, and he's talking to them about what's going on in his life and what's going on in in their life.

And he says that there's one thing we all have in common.

No matter whether you are a Debbie Downer or you are a golden ray of sunshine, the truth of it is that we can all have joy.

Somebody say joy.

We can't that sounded like the most depressing joy.

It's gonna get better in Jesus' name, all right?

We can we can all have, say it with me, joy.

We can all have joy, not because of what's going on on the outside, but because of what God is doing on the inside, because God is working on us.

And as we've been talking about the reason why it's so important to read the book of Philippians as the Holy Spirit is inspiring the Apostle Paul to write while he's in jail, as he realizes that he may be in jail, but we all have something in common, and that is there are many different kinds of prisons.

Only some have walls that we can see.

As a great theologian once said, everybody's got a private battle that nobody knows about unless you have a two-year-old, and then you have a very public battle that everybody knows about, right?

We all have those.

But the reality is that it is possible to be at a difficult season, but still have joy.

It's possible to have tears running down your face, but joy in your heart, because joy has got nothing to do with what's happening on the outside, but by what you're holding on to on the inside.

That's why we have to make sure that we define joy properly.

And that is, if you've been with us for the past three weeks, you probably got this one hopefully memorized by now.

And that is, joy is a sigh of contentment because God is in control.

It's a sigh of contentment, not because everything is going all right in the moment, but because you know who holds the keys of death, hell, and the grave.

You know who is ultimately in charge.

And so you can take a sigh of contentment, even if everything on the outside looks like a mess, because you know that God is doing more than we realize.

And that sigh of contentment is what the apostle Paul is talking about.

And so we've been building on that one week after another.

And in week one, we talked about how God's work is done in all things, that everything becomes a tool in the master's hand to work out his will in our life.

Two, uh week two, we talked about how God's work heals our perspective.

That instead of seeing the world as one tragedy after another, we see the world as one opportunity after another for God to do something great.

Last week we talked about how God's work brings joyful humility.

That joy, our humility is not about thinking less of ourselves, it's about thinking of ourselves less often because of what God is doing.

And he he finished that with talking about how Jesus was the greatest example of humility and how he never lost his identity and who he is.

That's why he was able to endure the cross.

And he said, now that you got all of that, let's go a little bit deeper.

And that's what he's gonna say to us today.

God's word says this.

It's therefore, dear friends, as you always follow my instructions when I was with you.

Now that I am away, it is even more important.

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him.

Do everything without complaining and arguing.

Somebody say amen.

And so that no one can criticize you.

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in the wonderful, uh in the world full of crooked and perverse people.

Hold firmly to the word of life.

Then on the day when Christ returns, I will be so proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

But I will rejoice, even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God.

And I want all of you to share that joy.

Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.

That when you sigh because you have found contentment, that God is in control, man, it's like it does the same thing for me.

It's like a yawn.

If you ever watch somebody yawn and you don't want to yawn back, you're doing your best not to, but it just kind of happens.

That's the same thing that can happen with joy.

That when we all get that sigh of contentment because God is in control, it can be contagious.

Just like panic can be contagious, so can the joy of the Lord.

And that's what Paul is talking about as he is saying that we can have joy because God is working, because he is healing our perspective, because he is teaching us how to think less of ourselves and more about others.

And then he said, even more, now we can know that because God is working, we are empowered to grow with joy.

That we are empowered not to just stay the way we are, but we are empowered to now grow into everything that God has created us to be.

One of the things I love about God so very much is he doesn't just save us and then move on, but he saves us and then he goes to work healing us from every broken place in our life.

It's like the moment of salvation is like unlocking the door and opening the door to the prison that we found ourselves in.

And then he gives us the dignity of saying, Come on, let's walk you all the way to freedom.

And that's what Paul is saying is he's saying that salvation is so much more than we can imagine, and it is so much more healing than we can imagine.

He started off with saying, Hey, listen, when I was with you, we did it.

Now that I'm away from you, you can keep on.

Other words, it's always a good idea to keep growing.

And he said, This is how we grow to work hard.

Somebody say work hard.

Work hard to show the results.

One more, say results.

This is actually a more controversial passage, but hopefully it won't be after today.

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

I love how he says work hard, because he lets us know that we have some skin in the game.

We have a little bit of personal responsibility, that when we get saved, we don't enter into the kingdom of Spa where we just sit back and say, Lord, have your way.

But we say, Lord, have your way.

And he says, Good, get up and grab a broom.

That we all have an opportunity to take part in our own healing.

But then we don't do it so that we can be saved.

It is a reaction because we have been saved.

It is the byproduct and the fruit of our salvation.

And then he says, do it with reverence and fear.

That word fear doesn't mean being terrified.

That word fear and reverence means awe and wonder.

Just like the song we just got through saying, May I never lose the awe and wonder of your presence.

He said, He's saying, May you never forget that the reason why we work hard to show the results of our salvation is because of the goodness of God.

Because he is so very good and he sees us and our broken state, and he says, I love you too much to let you stay that way.

The truth of it is God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you in that condition.

And he spends the rest of our lives growing us toward healing and freedom.

And that's why we have to remember that salvation becomes a part of the process of healing, but we don't earn it.

As a matter of fact, Ephesians says God saved you by his grace when you believed.

And you can't take credit for this, it is a gift from God.

Somebody say gift.

You can't earn a gift, all you can do is receive a gift.

And so Paul is saying we work hard not to receive salvation, but we have the opportunity to work hard because we have received salvation, because God has given us this opportunity.

And so that kind of begs the question then, what is salvation?

Because I don't know what environment you grew up in.

I grew up in an environment where I thought that the only reason why I was saved is because I was earning it day after day.

That I, if I prayed enough, if I read my Bible enough, if I came to church enough, somehow then God would bless me with salvation.

No, it's the other way around.

I do those things because of my love for God and my celebration.

So let's talk about it for just a second.

What is the beauty of whole salvation?

And so, could people ask me the question of is salvation like, do I get saved so I don't go to hell?

Do I get saved so that I can walk in freedom?

Do I get saved so I can go to heaven?

The answer is yes.

Absolutely.

Here's salvation.

It's a whole thing.

Here's the first one, and that is salvation washes away your past.

The$5 theological word is justification.

Just as if I had never sinned.

In other words, we have been saved.

The moment you receive salvation, nothing in your past is now counted against you in the kingdom of God.

He washes away all your sin.

It doesn't matter what it was, it is not more powerful than the blood of Jesus.

Everything in your past has been washed under the blood of Jesus.

So salvation is justification.

Salvation is also in the present tense, sanctification, which means we are being saved.

I'm in the process of being saved.

Other words, I'm in the process of being delivered out of everything that has been, I've been broken into and everything that has been holding me back.

I'm in the process of growing into that total freedom.

And then also the future, which is called glorification.

And that is we will be saved.

Can I tell you one of the greatest things ever is that if you have Jesus, if you've given your life over to him, you don't have to fear what happens after death because you're going to be in the very presence of God for all of eternity.

That's why salvation is so amazing, is he washes away all of our sin.

He is in the process of cleaning us up from the inside out, and then he has a home prepared for us in heaven.

And so which one of these is Paul talking about?

We're not working hard to be forgiven.

We're not working hard to get to heaven, we're working hard to partner with God to be free in every single area of our life.

To which then the question becomes, Paul, if you're telling us that the great adventure is to work hard for this adventure of being free, how?

And he's like, I'm so glad you asked.

The reason why we do this is we work hard to show our salvation, for God is working in you, and he's giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him.

In other words, God is the one who gives us the grit, the determination, that one more day, try one more day, don't give up one more day, and the power, the ability.

What I love about God is he opens up that prison door and he doesn't just say, Well, when you're ready, be free and walk away.

He opens that door, then he walks in with us and he grabs us by the hand, he pulls us up and he walks with us out to freedom.

And every time we say, God, I don't think I can go anymore, he gives us just enough grit to keep going.

And when we say, God, I don't think I have the power or the ability, he says, it's okay, you don't, but I do.

So lean on me and we'll walk toward freedom every single day.

That's why I love so much when he when Paul says, when I think about this, when I think about God is healing us from the inside out through this sanctification and he gives us the opportunity, then he gives us the grit and the power.

I can't help but say that I give thanks to God with joy, a sigh of contentment, because I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished.

He said, Man, when I think that God is doing a good thing in you and me, when I think about the fact that he is actively healing us from the inside out, and when I think about the fact that God doesn't just do 99%, but he keeps on healing us until we are completely healed and whole, he's like, Man, I can't help.

I'm sitting in prison, I see rats all over the place, it's leaking up in here.

I don't know what's going on.

The Caesar could call me any day and I could die, but man, I got so much joy.

I brought all the sunshine with me because I trust in the Lord.

And I trust that I can have joy because I know that God is working.

Can I tell you if we don't say anything else?

God's working on you.

God's working on me to make us what we ought to be.

It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth, Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and patient he must be.

He's still working on, we should edit the song, you and me, okay, to make it work.

In other words, it took God six days to make all of creation, and he loves you so much he's gonna spend the rest of the life, the rest of your life fixing you and me.

That's how much he loves us.

And that's what Paul is saying.

It's like, don't get upset about all the things that you don't like about you.

God's fixing it, and he's given you an opportunity to do it.

So work hard with joy, because God's gonna give you the grit and desire to do what he's called you to do.

And then what I love is then he answers this question where has God given us all?

Somebody say all.

Where has God given us all, including your neighbor, the grit and ability to grow in freedom?

Because you know what's what would be absolutely not helpful is if God's word said, Come on, church, let's grow in freedom, let's work hard because we've been saved.

Goodbye.

I mean, is anybody else wired to go, well, how?

What exactly am I supposed to work on?

Right?

And and here's the thing: he goes and he starts to tell us some things that we can work on.

Praise the Lord.

And here's what I want you to do.

I want you to take like a personal kind of inventory and ask yourself the question: which one of these three things is the Holy Spirit speaking to you to grow in?

Maybe you're good at all three.

Maybe you need to grow in one of these.

Maybe you're like me, and I'm just like, just God, pick one, because I need all of them, okay?

Maybe that's the case, but whatever it is, I'm gonna tell you the good news is God wants to grow us in all of these.

Look at your neighbor and say, it's time to grow.

It's time to grow.

And there's three ways he says to do this.

And here's the first one he says, we have the opportunity, because of what God is doing, to grow in our attitudes.

AKA, fix your face.

All right.

I I was gonna do it like that, but I wanted to just to kind of be like more, you know, professional.

Praise the Lord, you know.

But what I wanted to do is be like, the first thing he helps us do is he helps us fix your face.

Okay?

That's that's what we used to say when I was growing up.

But but the more uh kind one is he just helps us grow in our attitudes.

I don't know anybody that needs to grow in their attitude.

Do you?

How many sitting beside that person that needs to grow in their attitude?

Let's go ahead and do that.

Yes, I see all of that.

All right, all right.

Now they do have an attitude problem because you pointed them out.

But here's the good news the Bible says God is working in you, giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him.

He's giving you the grit, the determination, and the ability.

So do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you.

In other words, do everything without complaining and arguing so that nobody else starts complaining and arguing.

So, like there is apparently a circle that happens here, and Paul is saying, somebody stop the circle.

Somebody stop being the one who continues the circle of violence, the circle of complaining.

And you know what's funny is the way these would have been written, they would have been written for that for then uh someone to go and read it to the church.

I wonder the first time they were reading it at the church of Philippi, and he says, So do everything without complaining or arguing, that maybe the guy stopped and went like, mm, we know exactly who that's for in Jesus' name.

And keeps going.

Because the word complaining, the Greek word for that, literally means to grumble or to mutter under your breath.

You ever heard anybody just grumble under their breath?

Other words, have you ever had teenage kids?

Okay, you ever had, you know, just just just that.

He's saying that continual stream of consciousness that's just negative.

And you know what we end up doing?

We end up doing what our stream of consciousness convinces us is true.

You know, the more we talk badly to ourselves, the more we begin to believe it.

But then also he says, be careful to not argue.

Other words, consistently stirring things up, looking for drama and telling a friend and calling it a prayer request, but instead complaining and arguing.

And it's just he's saying, You have the ability.

I heard someone say one time, I can't help it.

It was their way I was raised.

I was born this way.

That's why Jesus said you must be born again.

Is that we don't have to be stuck here, but because of what Jesus has done, we can work our way into freedom, we can work our way into being a source of unity instead of a source of division.

And I don't know if this is one of them you need to work work on or work through, but maybe the Lord's word to you is today, fix your face.

In Jesus' name.

And I love this so much.

I love this because the Old Testament helps me so much because there's a place where even God's people need attitude adjustments.

Can we just put everybody like if you don't have a problem with this and just shine your halo and just sit over there, and the rest of us will say, Me in Jesus' name.

All right?

Think about this for just a moment.

The nation of Israel for 430 years have been in Egyptian bondage.

And for 430 years, they could, they would have remembered the promise that Abra Abraham was told by God, one day the people will be free.

One day the people will be free.

And after 430 years, that means their grandparents, grandparents, grandparents.

I don't think the United States has, what, 275 years?

So not quite double the amount of time they were in slavery.

And then one day God raises up Moses.

And you think about the people of that generation.

They were born into slavery, but over the course of just a few months, they witnessed the 10 plagues of Egypt.

Like water turning to blood, gnats and flies and darkness and the fur, just all of this stuff.

Then they witnessed the Red Sea part.

That'd change a whole weekend.

Then they saw the Egyptian army destroyed.

Then they got free food from God every day.

And they said it tasted like honey.

They had honey toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day.

Can you imagine?

Every morning you get up, Uber Eats has delivered you your food for the day.

That's what they got to do.

Then they God led them with holy clouds and fire.

During the day, there would be this column of fire that would go from the ground all the way to the sky, pointing them.

He was like a holy GPS, helping them get where they needed to go.

And then he would have a holy pillar of fire at night.

He gave them a night light so they wouldn't have to sleep in the dark.

Then they saw God's glory descend on Mount Sinai.

The Bible said it was lightning and flashes and thunder as the presence of God entered into our atmosphere, and our atmosphere couldn't contain it.

And so, boom, everything was started to react to the raw presence of God.

They saw that with their own two eyes.

Then they made it safely.

Took them a month, just a month, to get from Sinai to Canaan.

I mean, what's going to stop these guys?

And the Bible said they get right to the edge of Canaan and they send out 12 spies to plot out the ground to figure out because God had promised them, I'm going to take you back to your homeland.

You have been slaves for 400 years.

I'm taking you back to where you belong.

You just follow me.

Okay, let's go.

So the pillar of cloud, the fire by night, they're seeing so many miracles.

Then they go, they let the 12 spies go.

And then the 12 spies come back.

Two of them say, Let's do it.

10 of them say, I don't know, guys.

Those guys are pretty big.

They look pretty strong.

I don't know.

Well, what would you think that if somebody comes back and they go, this is kind of big, this is kind of rough, but you have seen all of that.

Okay, look at what this what the Bible says.

Then the whole community began weeping aloud and they cried all night.

Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron.

And listen to this.

If only we had died in Egypt.

You are slaves.

Or even here in the wilderness.

Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle?

Our wives and our little ones will be carried off in plunder.

Wouldn't it have been better for us to return to Egypt?

Look at this.

Let's choose a new leader to go back to Egypt.

Let's choose a new leader because apparently this guy don't know what he's doing.

Okay, all right.

Well, then the Bible says that Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the whole community of Israel.

Now that sounds awful, like pious and holy.

In my mind, that's just like, oh my goodness, and they just fall over.

And then two of the two men who had explored the land who came back, Joshua and Caleb, they tore their clothes.

That's a sign of grief.

And look what they said.

They said, all the people of Israel, they said to all of them, the land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land.

And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into the land and give it to us.

It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey.

In other words, it can sustain our lives.

Do not rebel against the Lord and don't be afraid of what people, of the people of the land.

They are only helpless prey to us.

They have no protection.

But the Lord is with us.

Don't be afraid of them.

In other words, all of these people had not learned anything from all of the miracles that they had saw, but two people had grown in the process.

They at some point realized God is greater than anything that we would face.

And you know, I want to be so very critical of the Israelites until I think about my life.

When I think of all the great things that God has done, when I think of all the wonderful things I've been able to see, when I think of all the goodness of God, I start to get not judgmental, but I start getting convicted.

Because how many times have I seen God do a million miracles and then I come up against the next test and wonder where God is?

And how many times do we like like the lesson behind this is we must be careful not to complain about what we used to pray about?

We got to be so careful because they would have prayed for 400 years.

God, if you'll just take us back to our to the promised land, if you'll just take us, he's taking them and now they're complaining about it.

Because the question would be, wait a minute, you mean I gotta work for this?

Yes.

That's part of the healing journey.

Part of the healing journey is that you take those steps of faith.

And what Paul is saying is, as he's saying, Man, this is an amazing adventure to work hard to show the results of your salvation.

And God's gonna give you the grit and the power to do more than you can imagine because God wants you free more than you can imagine.

And so fix your face.

Fix your face and realize that God can heal you of complaining and God can heal you of arguing.

And here's the question, and that is how can we grow in our attitude?

Well, let's look at what happened to Joshua and Caleb.

How do we heal in our complaining?

Maybe a first step is to look for a blessing in every problem, not a problem in every blessing.

They saw the giants, not denying that they are there, they just paled a comparison to the greatness of God.

And so they saw the giants and they said, What a wonderful opportunity for God to do something amazing.

Where everybody else saw these other these others as the reason why it wouldn't work.

Joshua and Caleb saw these others as the reason why God was going to show his greatness just like he did with the plagues, just like he did with the manna, just like he did with everything else.

Here's the other one with arguing maybe it's time to pursue unity, not drama.

We can't stop drama from coming to us.

We can stop drama from leaving from us and just not let it continue.

Why?

Because God's doing a great work in you.

God's doing a great work in me, and he wants to heal our attitudes so that we can be a source of healing for others.

He said, Do this so that others won't be complaining and criticizing and arguing.

And he said, when you fix your face, you become an example of how other people can as well.

And we're not earning our salvation.

It's because God has opened that door that we can then walk through it in freedom.

And he says, work hard out of the joy and the wonder that you have, that God's gonna give you the grit and the power to fix your face.

So look at your neighbor and say, fix your face.

You really can.

You can you can do that.

You you and I both can live without drama.

Here's a second one.

He said that we can also grow our actions, which is we would say where I come from, wash your hands.

Can fix your face, and we can wash our hands.

We can grow in our attitudes.

And he says, Man, I got a great idea for you that you can grow in your actions as well.

In other words, you're not a victim of how you were raised.

You're not a victim of what other people have done to you.

It is so hard, but that's why God gives us the grit and God gives us the power to move forward into freedom.

Look at what he said.

He said, God is working in you, giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him.

So live clean and innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

So he's saying, live clean and innocent.

That doesn't mean living perfect.

He's not saying that you're never gonna sin.

He's not saying that you're never gonna have a bad day.

He's saying live to be more like Jesus every day.

Live to be more like him in everything you do.

And when you do that, you're gonna shine like a bright light in the world that is dark.

He's saying, when you live more like Jesus every day, not perfect, but always falling forward into grace, because you're not trying to earn salvation, but instead we live from salvation and we start to heal from all the broken places in our life.

God starts to heal us in our actions.

So we start acting more like Christ.

Jesus said it like this.

He was he was preaching what we now call the Sermon on the Mount, and he said this: He said, You are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

Instead, that lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your good deeds shine for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Paul is saying the same thing that Jesus was saying, and he was saying that when you live your faith out loud, when you live your actions according to what God's word says, he said there's joy there, and it also shows what God can do.

Like we are the masterpiece to the world, not in our perfection, but in the fact that God continues to work in our life as we shine from Him.

And it kind of reminds me of this, this illustration of he says, shine like bright lights.

It's like the idea of shining like the moon.

You ever you ever looked at the moon at night and it was so bright that it almost hurt your eyes?

You almost couldn't look at it because it was just so bright.

It's like it's amazing how bright it is.

You probably already know this, but just in case, did you know that the sun doesn't shine at all by itself?

That it's just a rock, like like rocks all around here.

It's just it's just a rock.

It doesn't do anything.

Like by itself, you wouldn't even know it was there.

It would be absolutely dark.

The moon does not shine.

The moon reflects the shine from the sun.

And what he is saying is our job, we got to take some of the pressure off of ourselves.

Our job is not to shine all by ourselves.

We're not supposed to be perfect all by ourselves.

We're not supposed to be mature all by ourselves.

Our job is not to shine by ourselves, our job is to reflect the shine and the light of God.

But the problem is, is when we try to shine on our own, then God keeps on shining, but nobody can see us anymore.

That we are no longer an example of what it is to live in the light of God.

Instead, we're just walking and living.

But instead, if we can live in the light of God, then the world can see his goodness, not ours.

That's why we walk in humility.

We're not thinking less of ourselves, we're thinking of ourselves less often.

And so, what does that tell us?

That tells us we have to be so very careful because we reflect to the world what we are exposed to the most.

That's why we have to be careful.

Someone needs to take a picture of that because later this week you're going to need that when you've been on TikTok for three hours straight.

Okay, look, we reflect to the world what we are exposed to the most.

You can't help it.

You it doesn't matter how much you want to be like Jesus if you don't spend any time with him, then you're not gonna reflect him.

So think about what your actions have been like over the past two weeks, and I think we could tell you who you've been hanging around the most.

And that doesn't mean that we're perfect.

Paul's just saying, you have an opportunity.

You have an opportunity to fix your attitude or fix your face.

We all have an opportunity to fix our actions.

Why?

Because God is doing a great work in us.

And because he is doing a great work in us, he said, Man, you can work hard.

You're not stuck in what you were in.

You are not a victim of your circumstances, but you can pull yourself out of there, not from your own strength, but because God gives us the grit.

God is the one who gives us the ability.

Because we have been saved, we are saved, and we will be saved.

And so we are not looking for God's approval.

We live because we have it.

If we have Jesus, and he walks us toward freedom.

And he said, Man, there is an opportunity for you to walk in freedom in your actions, for you to walk in freedom with your attitude.

And let me give you one more, and that is walk in freedom in relentless faithfulness.

Also known as stand up straight.

You ever have somebody say, stand up straight and you can't help yourself, you fix your posture?

You know, I don't know if y'all don't know if y'all ever do that, but I don't think about it until somebody says, you know, my back is hurting, or I need to stand up straight, and all of a sudden I realize I've been bowed over like this for a while, you know?

And you know, the reality of it is that's what happens in life.

So many times because we just aren't aware, we aren't paying attention, we slowly get discouraged in what's going on until somebody says, God is good, and we go, Oh, that's right, I'm supposed to be supposed to be excited about this.

And Paul says the same thing.

He says, Man, if you could see what I see, if you could see that God is moving in your life, that he is active and moving in your life, and if he is never going to stop until he gets you there, then you'd realize that this is one adventure after another.

Not saying that it's a good thing.

Every adventure has a villain, but God is able to overcome every one of those things.

And so we can work hard, not out of a sense of terror or dread, but out of a sense of awe and wonder because God is doing a good thing inside of us and he gives us the opportunity to be part of it.

And he says, Man, that means that you can grow in your actions, you can grow in your attitude, and you can grow in your relentless faithfulness.

He says it like this He says, So then hold firmly.

Somebody say, Hold firmly.

Hold firmly to the word of life, and I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God as well.

And I want all of you to share in that sigh of contentment because you know that God is in control.

What does he mean by a liquid offering?

Well, in the Old Testament, what they would do, and they would have a sacrifice that they were sacrificing to God.

They would take some, if they wanted to worship God even more, they would take some liquid and they would pour it on the fire, and the fire would be so hot that it would immediately evaporate and it would go as a smoke straight up into heaven.

And so it was one of the most authentic ways to worship, according to them, because it was went straight up to God.

And he was saying that one of the greatest ways for us to worship.

We worship with our hands lifted, we worship when we read our Bibles, we worship when we honor God.

He said, But you know how I'm worshiping?

By not getting discouraged in prison.

I'm worship, you can worship with your relentless faithfulness.

Worship is not just something that we do in a moment, it's how we live our lives.

And he's saying that we worship when we hold firmly to that word of life.

That phrase hold firmly has two meanings.

And that both of those meanings, number one, is that it's like we how we relentlessly hold fast.

And so it's almost like taking a torch and pushing it into the ground and saying, this far and no further.

This is where I'm planting my flag.

In other words, he's saying, when you live your life saying, I am not ashamed of who I am, I am not gonna back up, but I'm not, I'm gonna move forward.

I'm not ashamed of being a Christian, I'm not ashamed of what God has done in my life.

And he said, when you hold firm right there and say, you are not gonna give an inch to the enemy, he said, that's an act of worship and faithfulness.

He also said that word also rather means holding forth, which is the same thing as having a flashlight, like a spotlight, and you are shining it for everybody else to see.

So in a world of darkness, not only are you planting your flag, but you're also waving and saying, This is where the goodness is, this is where God is.

Come, come and let me tell you about the goodness of God.

And as we are doing both of those, he said, That's worship.

That's worship when we faithfully, continually plant our flag in the ground and say, I'm not gonna give up on what God told me.

And then when we shine our light for others to see, he said, when you do that, that's what worship looks like.

That's what faithfulness looks like.

That's what every time you do that, it's like a prayer going straight up to heaven when you say, I'm not gonna give up one more day.

And Paul is saying that's only because of what God is doing in you, because of your salvation.

We can work hard to stay firm in what he has done, and we can grow in our attitudes, we can grow in our actions, and then we can grow in our relentless faithfulness.

And can I tell you, that's so easy to say.

It is so very hard to do because I don't know what world you live in, but it's so easy to complain.

There's 99 reasons to complain, and there's 99 reasons to have what someone consider to be not holy actions.

And then it can be so easy to want to give up because sometimes I want to hold fast, but sometimes I don't want to always wave my flag.

Sometimes I just want to just be quiet and alone, but instead, God says it's worship when you shout out loud who God says you are.

And that's why I love God's word so much.

This week we're gonna start reading, or we just started reading a book called uh Zechariah.

And if you'd like to join us, you could text RLC Bible to 94,000, reading one chapter a day.

And today was Zechariah chapter two.

And what's amazing about the book of Zechariah is I think it just speaks so well to anybody who's ever known that God wanted to do something in your life, but you didn't know how to grow.

You didn't know.

Because what had happened was that the nation of Israel had been in bondage for 70 years.

During that time that most of them had been deported, their homes had been overrun with with weeds and their their roofs would have caved in, their crops would have gone, their fences would have failed, and they're they're looking at where God is telling them to go back to.

But for 70 years, they've been in bondage and deported in these other countries, and they've kind of gotten used to their chains.

Gotten used to not being where God wanted them to go.

And now God sent a prophet Zachariah saying, it's time to come home, it's time to grow, it's time to restore all the things that the enemy took from you.

It's time to be everything that God has called you to be.

And you wonder how they're going, but how could God fix this mess?

How in the world could we ever take a step in the right direction?

Have you seen our houses?

Have you seen the fact that the crops are full of weeds now?

Have you seen all of this?

How could it be possible?

How am I supposed to fix this mess?

And I love how God's word to Zachariah, he says to Zerubbabel, which would have been the king, he says, This is what the Lord says, and maybe this is what the Lord will say to some of us today.

It is not by force nor by our own strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord of heaven's armies.

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.

In other words, if in this message you are sitting there and you are saying, I don't know which one to start with, Pastor.

Because if I'm honest, I sometimes struggle with my attitude.

If I'm honest, I sometimes struggle with my actions, and oh Lord, if I don't struggle sometimes with a relentless faithfulness, I don't even know.

How am I supposed to fix this?

How am I supposed to do this?

How am I supposed to fix this addiction issue that I've got or this other issue?

The thing is that you're not on your own.

Remember, God's word says that we work hard to show the results of our salvation because God is the one who gives us the grit and the power to do it.

God has no intention of you setting yourself free.

God has every intention of walking with you toward freedom.

If you're willing to come on home to Him.

If you're willing to stop trying to do it by yourself, stop trying to fix your anger problem all by yourself.

Stop trying to fix your gossip issue all by yourself.

Stop trying to fix whatever issue that you're going through.

God has set you free, but he has no intention of you having to do it by yourself.

That's why once we begin to see it the way Paul does, he starts to go, man, I see everything.

I'm certain that God, who began a good work within us, will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

And so I have joy.

That when everything else is going wrong, I have a sigh of contentment because I know God is in control.

And that's why God's word says this.

It says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So I say, Let it grow and let the lights work in Jesus' name.

Technology, man.

You gotta, you gotta love it.

But I'm gonna tell you a story.

I'm in a scary movie right now.

I'm gonna wake up any second.

It's gonna be great.

Um, let me tell you a story.

No, this is an imperfect story.

Imperfect story, okay.

Just leave them up, man.

It's cool.

Just leave them up.

This is an imperfect story, and I don't know if this, if this, if this wounds any of you, I don't mean it this way.

Please hear the heart of this story, but it so spoke to me that I wanted to give it to you.

And now I got your attention.

I know.

Um so I had a friend of mine, he was relating to me something, and he said, You know, when I was a kid, anytime I would do something that wasn't, I thought absolutely perfect, he said, my dad would say, You think you're stupid?

And he would be like, No?

And he said, I'd bring a report card home.

You think you're stupid?

Are you just stupid?

If he would, you know, get get in trouble.

Are you stupid?

He would do something.

Are you are you finally said he got so so frustrated with his dad calling him this so many times?

He said, I still remember I was a teenager.

And I said, Yes, dad.

Apparently I'm stupid.

And he looked at him and he said, He said, I've only seen my dad cry one time.

And he said, I saw a single tear go down my dad's cheek, and he said, No, son, you're not stupid.

And that's why I get so frustrated.

He said, I'm asking you because I want you to eventually say no.

Because when I see you, I see the smartest person I've ever seen.

He said, When I see you, I see the kindest person.

He said, You are so much better than I can ever imagine to be.

And it makes me so angry when I see you living below your potential.

So I'm gonna ask you again, son, are you stupid?

No, Dad, exactly now.

Live like it.

And he said, I know that my dad could have said it a whole lot better.

He said, but he did it the best way he could, and he said, and after that day, I never looked at myself the same way twice.

Can I tell you?

If you read this Bible as things you're supposed to do and not do, every time you get something wrong, it can sound like God is saying, Are you stupid?

Can you not figure this out?

Every time it tells us to fix your face, fix your actions or stand up straight.

If you if you read this through the eyes of judgment, you'll be like, Well, God, I messed up again, I'm so sorry.

And when God says, Come on, church, let's live for something greater, let's live for something better, he's not saying that you're broken and you're messed up and God doesn't love you, and so somehow if you'll just fix yourself, but instead, God is saying, if you could just see what I see, if you could just see that there's an adventure waiting for you on the other side of the lies the enemy tells you.

That the enemy tells you that you're never gonna be good enough, that he tells you that you're never gonna be able to do what God's Word says, that you're always gonna act this way, you're always gonna feel this way, you're never gonna be enough.

He said, if you can just get to the other side of the lies of the enemy, then you can look at every problem and say, Man, when any trouble comes of any kind, I consider it an opportunity for great sigh of contentment.

Why?

For I know that when my faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So I say, Bring it on.

Because I no longer see every test as an opportunity for God to destroy me.

Just like the nation of Israel, how many miracles do you have to see before you trust him?

How many times will it take until we stop judging God based on our current need?

And we will start trusting him based on his past faithfulness and to realize that he's enough.

Can I tell you?

I think God's got a big idea for every one of us in here.

I believe that he says, Come on, church, let's grow.

Let's work hard to show the results of our salvation because God is gonna give you the grit and the determination to conquer every one of those enemies because he is gonna be walking beside you.

He's not doing it because he's worried you're gonna fail.

He's doing it because he knows that you and him are going to succeed.

And so, what is it in your life that it's time for you to stop battling on your own?

It's time for you to stop listening to the lies of the enemy that said it's always gonna be this way.

And instead, it's time to grow using the grit and the power that God has put within you.

When is it gonna be time to stop looking at every difficulty as the end and then start saying, Bring it on?

I know that's a big battle, but have you seen my Jesus?

Have you seen what my king can do?

In just a moment, the band's gonna lead us through a song of worship, and I don't know exactly what's going on in your life right now.

I don't know.

We all have a private battle that nobody else knows about, but I know we all have the same king, and he's able to do exceedingly and abundantly above anything we could ask, think, or imagine.

Here's my question for you What is it that at night is keeping your RPMs at 60, 80?

What is it that's keeping you from resting?

What fear or worry has the enemy put inside of you?

What addiction, what stronghold has the enemy told you that you're never gonna be able to grow out of?

Can we just bind the devil in Jesus' name and realize that in Christ all things are made new and that today could be the first step of your freedom if you quit trying to do it by yourself and instead saying, God, give me the grit and desire.

What is it you need to bring to the Lord today and let him do a work in your heart?

Maybe you're in here and you don't know Jesus.

If you don't know Jesus, I bet you do have 99 problems.

The rest of us do too.

But we got one king that makes all those problems look smaller.

Do you have a king like that?

If not, inside your worship God on the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

And just a moment, as we begin to worship the Lord, it's gonna be your opportunity to worship him too.

And maybe your next best act of worship is to stand to your feet in just a moment when the rest of us do and make your way back to the prayer table and say, I need a king like that.

I need a king that will save me from my past, work with me in my present, save me in my future.

That kind of king has his hand out to you today.

And he's saying, Come on home.

Don't try to fight those battles, don't try to face that darkness on your own.

You were never intended to.

You're always intended to do it with me.

What next step of faith do you need to make today?

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, for seeing us and knowing us in this place.

Thank you, God, that you are for us and not against us.

Holy Spirit, I'm always so impressed and amazed at what you do in every one of our church services and how you speak to so many of us for so many reasons in so many different seasons of our life.

And Lord, I know without any doubt that there are probably people in this season who are just coming out of one of the most difficult journeys of their life.

And this message is a moment of celebration for them.

They're celebrating how you have grown them.

The things that would have destroyed them, they didn't even notice this time.

And that, Lord, this moment can be a time of just celebration.

And I pray, God, that you will fill them with joy in this moment.

God, I know there are probably others that they're right in the middle of the darkest valley of their life, and they're wondering, is this the one?

Can I make it through this one?

I pray, Holy Spirit, you will silence the voice of the enemy and remind them that they are not done, that you are still growing in them a beautiful legacy of your faithfulness, and that you are going to continue to give them the grit and the power to do everything you've called them to do.

And God, maybe there's somebody in this place today.

They've been trying so hard.

They've been trying so hard to figure this thing called life out.

They've been trying to do it on their own, and they realize it's it's not working.

Lord, they've tried everything else tonight.

Today it's time to come home.

It's time to choose Jesus.

And Lord, as they come running to you, your word promises that you come running to us.

I pray that you will meet them right in that moment of that decision.

I pray you will silence every voice of the enemy in Jesus' name so that your voice, Holy Spirit, is the only one that we hear, and that you, God, will have your way in this place.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in a final song of worship.

I don't know what next step you need to take.

Maybe you're in here and you have just come out of the greatest season.

God has grown you.

You have you have seen things that you're gonna celebrate the rest of your life, and this just needs to be a time of celebration.

God, I'm so thankful for your faithfulness.

Maybe you're in here and you are facing a battle.

You're facing a determined foe, and you need to be reminded that God has not left you, but he is right in that battle with you, and he is growing you into freedom every day.

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Can I tell you, God's not forgotten about you?

It's not over for you.

Don't listen to the lie of the enemy that says it's too late.

It's not too late.

Today is the day of salvation.

As soon as we begin to worship the Lord, I want you to meet us at the prayer table and we want to talk to you about what salvation is.

But for all of us, let's take the next few moments and just spend time in the presence of the Lord together.