This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We are in day three of
our look together through Philippians chapter two, looking at verses 12 to 18
today. In this section of Philippians two, we're looking at a major reason for a
loss of joy in our lives.

Not living up and living out the potential that God has given into our lives
through the gifts that he's given us, misunderstanding those gifts. And when I
do that, sometimes I end up wallowing in the mud when, as we're going to see in
this passage, we could instead shine like stars. And when you know you could
shine like a star and you're wallowing in the mud, there's just a lack of joy.

When we choose to live short of the gifts that God has given us, we are
inevitably going to live short of joy. And in this passage, we're going to see
pictures of the fulfillment of our potential that are pictures like you'll look
like God's child, you'll shine like God's star, you'll create boasting in the
day of Christ on that final day of judgment when we all gather together. Those
are wonderful pictures.

And this passage is all about how I grow towards that day. God wants all of us
to be growing towards all that he's made us to be. That, by the way, is called
sanctification.

It's always important to remember three words when we think about what it means
to be a believer in Christ, salvation, sanctification, and glorification.
Salvation is what happened the moment I asked Jesus into my life. It may have
been when you were six years old or 60, but the moment you trusted him and said,
I want you to be a part of my life, he saved you.

He guaranteed the fact that you're going to be with him in heaven for eternity. And
he began a process, the second thing, of sanctification. That's the process on
this earth of growing to be more and more like Jesus.

As we respond to the problems, as we live in our relationships, as we read his
word, as we talk to him, we grow to be more and more like Jesus in the way we
think and the things that we do. That's sanctification. It comes from the idea
of being holy.

And the third word is glorification. That hasn't happened yet. That's when we
reach that day when we're with him forever in heaven and he instantly glorifies
us to be like him.

So salvation happened the moment you were saved, sanctification is happening
now, and glorification happens when we get to heaven. So how do you find joy in
sanctification? How do you find joy in growth?

Because a lot of times we struggle with the fact that we're not growing like we
should, we're not growing like we want to, and it becomes a source of a lack of
joy rather than genuine joy. Well, Paul uses three phrases in these verses 12 to
18 to talk about how to find joy in growth. I need to work out, I need to not
get worked up, and I also need to work hard.

And first of all, if I'm going to experience joy when it comes to growing and using
the gifts that God's given me, the salvation that he's given to me, then I need
to work out, verses 12 to 13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you've always
obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to
work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you
to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Work out, we hear that phrase and we think aerobics or lifting weights or
running. How do I reach my physical potential by working out? This is talking
about spiritual aerobics, weight training for your faith.

Work out your faith. Now notice it does not say you work in your faith or you
work for your faith. This is not talking about achieving faith.

This is talking about living out the faith that God's already given you. You
work it out, you work out what God's already done. I like the New Living
Translation of this.

Put into action God's saving work in your life. So this isn't talking about
being saved by your works. This is talking about the works that follow
salvation, working out what God has done.

And God intentionally uses words here to challenge our thinking. Work it out.
You can't just be saved and then sit back and rest on your spiritual assurance.

What God works in, he will work out through us based on God's work in us. You
can't work your way to salvation. That's the truth.

But neither can you be saved and not have it make a difference in your life, not
begin to work it out, that's also the truth. Now how do I work out my salvation?
Well, there's three words in here that involve practical exercises, everyday
things I can do.

Obedience is how I work it out, just as you've always obeyed obedience. You do
what you want, you do what you feel, you do certain things just because you're
afraid or you do things just because you're worried and you'll always live short
of the growth that God wants in your life, the way that God wants to use you.
But you do what God wants, you obey, you begin to live up to the gifts that he's
given you.

Obedience. He also talks about intensity here and he uses a few words that might
confuse you when you first hear them. It says, work it out with fear and
trembling.

What does that mean? Does that mean I'm supposed to be scared of what God's
going to do to me if I don't work this out? No, it's not a matter of being scared.

These words instead point to an all-filled appreciation for the importance of
life, the importance of what could happen in my life as I allow God to work in
my life. Somebody's called this the strength of emotion that comes from desiring
to do your very best. This is the intensity that comes from knowing that
something's all important.

The intensity of a player in a Super Bowl or a mother loving her child or a
worker applying for a desperately needed job. It's the intensity that has your
hands trembling, not out of fear of what might be done to you, but of a
knowledge of the incredible importance of that moment. Be aware, he says, of the
importance of your growth in Christ.

You need to have obedience and intensity. You also need to have energy.
Sometimes you know what you want to do and you want to do it even, but you just
can't seem to find the energy to do it.

At least that happens to me. Well, good news in Philippians chapter two. You're
not in this alone.

You don't have to find the energy just by yourself. Philippians 2:13, listen to
this, listen to this. For God is at work within you, helping you to want to obey
him and then helping you to do what he wants.

That's from the living Bible. I need that. I need to know that I'm not in this
alone.

And the word that's used for work here, God is at work within you. We get our
English word energy from this Greek word for work. God does the energizing of
our lives.

So you lean back and you let him energize you. Warren Wiersbe talks about two
types of living from this passage, either up and down living or in and out
living. Up and down living is depending on your human energy.

And it's filled with peaks and valleys, with ups and downs. But in and out
living is God's energy working in us and then out through us, in us and then out
through us. It's more like a river with a constant flow, a strong, strong flow.

The current of that river doesn't diminish. I can either be motivated by outer
pressures or I can be strengthened by God's inner power. It was just outer
pressures, I'm not going to make it.

That's how you work out spiritually. Now, the word, by the way, in Paul's day,
when we talk about working out your salvation, was not about weight rooms. In
Paul's day, it was a word that related to solving a math problem or extracting
ore from a mine, working it out of the mine or reaping a crop from a field.

That's not a bad picture of what God wants to do in your life. Solving problems,
extracting that which is valuable, reaping the rewards of the crop. Pictures of
God's potential, God's gifts in your life being worked out as you trust in him.

How does that happen? Obedience, intensity, energy. You work it out.

Number two, don't get worked out. That's pretty simple. What we're going to talk
about in the next few minutes.

But of the three we're going to talk about today, this might be the most
life-changing. The actions that we take in verse 14 have an incredible impact on
our lives. First, let me read for you the impact that these actions that we take
will have in your life.

Verses 15 and 16. When I take these actions, what the impact will be so that you
may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault and a crooked and
depraved generation. In which, here's the result, you shine like stars in the
universe as you hold out the word of life.

In order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain nor
toil in vain. Now what are the commands that result in this awesome impact
shining like stars in the universe, holding out the word of life, becoming
blameless and pure children of God? What are the actions that result in that
impact?

Let me read for you, verse 14. Do everything without complaining or arguing.
Well, that just sounds too simple.

Is that it? Just those simple choices result in all this that we're talking
about? Well, it's those simple choices as a believer in Christ.

It's those simple choices based on the fact that he is in me. Because
complaining and arguing diminish the light that Christ wants to shine through
you. So don't complain and don't argue.

Very simple, but very life-changing. Don't complain. The Greek word there is, by
the way, gogusmon.

I like that word because it's one of those words that sounds like what it means,
complaining, gogusmon, gogusmon. I'm complaining, I'm upset, things aren't going
right. Really complaining is the I didn't get my way attitude of life.

And that disappointment becomes life's focus and joy dies on the vine. Don't
complain and don't argue. Complaining is I didn't get my way.

Arguing is I will get my way. I'm going to argue my way into it. And instead of
looking for victories, you begin to look for vindication.

And you get caught up. Here's the problem with arguments. You get caught up in
personalities rather than possibilities of what God could do.

Now, if you're a normal human being, you realize that complaining and arguing
can easily become a first reaction when things don't go the way you would like
them to go. How do you break the habit of those being the first reaction? Well,
when we talk about not complaining and not arguing, it doesn't mean you can't
stand up for what's right.

Complaining and arguing instead are standing up for your idea of what's right,
your idea of what you want. The roots of complaints and arguments are honestly
selfishness. And you might be thinking, this won't work for me.

I mean, complaining and arguing, that's how I get things done. It's also how you
dull your light, which is the most important thing that you get done. Now, let's
just get real practical about this because you may have some questions.

If there's a fly in your soup at a restaurant, don't complain, don't argue. Does
that mean you just have to eat the fly? No, of course not.

But don't complain and don't argue. It also means you don't have to make the
waiter feel like a fly in the way that you complain to them, the way that you
treat them. You can bring them over.

You can kindly ask them to help you. You can kindly ask them to serve you in
that situation. There's a way we speak to people that either lets our light
shine out or it dulls our light to the world.

And complaining and arguing dull our light. Don't complain, don't argue, don't
get worked up. And the third thing Paul talks about here when it comes to living
out our potential, growing as God wants us to grow, is we need to work hard.

But even as I say those words, let me ask a question. Why does working hard and
achieving often seem to sap us of joy rather than give us joy? Why does hard
work leave many of us feeling empty?

How can you both work hard and work joyfully? Well, the answer to that is found
in these verses. It's found in your attitude towards life.

There is a commitment to life that's necessary, but the attitude behind that
commitment determines whether hard work will sap you or satisfy you. So here's
the attitude, verses 17 and 18. But even Paul says, if I'm being poured out like
a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad,
and I rejoice with all of you.

So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. He basically says here, you can
live life in one of two ways. You can either live life trying to earn something
you don't yet have, or you can live life joyfully spending an abundance you've
already been given.

And that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to working hard.
You can work hard one of two ways. You can work hard trying to earn something
you don't have.

You can seek to earn life in fear of its loss, trying to earn people's applause,
to earn God's love, to earn forgiveness for your past guilts. You can't earn
life. It's a gift.

You can earn money, but you can't earn life. Life is a gift from God. And Paul
was not trying to earn his life.

He'd already been given the gift by God. And so he says in these verses that he
is joyfully spending his life, spending an abundance that he'd already been
given. He was spending his life for others in assurance of its abundance.

The word translated poured out here is the Greek word spendamai. Now it sounds
like our English word spent, but it actually means to be poured out. Paul says,
"I'm pouring out my life like a drink offering.

" Instead of hoarding his life, Paul was pouring it out. And he gives a picture.
He says, "It's like a drink offering.

" A drink offering in the Old Testament is a picture from Numbers 15, one of the
places it's talked about. It was an offering that was poured over a sacrifice
that had already been given to God. It was in one sense like an icing on the
cake kind of an offering given at the end.

And this is a very humble statement by the apostle Paul. He says, "I am pouring
out my life. I am spending my life for the sake of the enabling, the sweetening
of your service and faith.

" There's a kind of hard work that results in a great joy. And it's the kind of
hard work that says, I'm not earning my life in fear of its loss. I am spending
my life in assurance of its abundance.

I know what God's already given to me. I know what God's got for me in heaven.
And so I can pour out my life here unafraid because of all that he has given to
me.

Let's pray together. As we pray together, let me remind you of the words to that
song by Matt Redmond based on these verses that we've just read. "We will shine
like stars in the universe, holding out your truth in the darkest place.

We'll be living for your glory. Jesus, we'll be living for your glory. We will
burn so bright with your praise, O God, and declare your light to this broken
world.

We'll be living for your glory. Jesus, we'll be living for your glory. Like the
sun, so radiantly sending light for all to see, let your holy church arise.

We will shine. " God, help us to be able to make the choice to live for your
glory, to grow to be more like Jesus as we trust you to work out what we can't
work in, as we make the choice to not get worked up and complain about things
that don't really matter when what you're doing is what really does matter. And
as Lord, we make the choice to work hard, recognizing, God, that you are working
in us and we can trust in that work.

Give us a strength that works hard, not based on trying to earn something, but
on just giving back to you, pouring out for you what you've already given to us.
Help us to obey you, to stop complaining, and to spend our lives loving you. We
pray this in your name.

Amen.