TITLE: IN-N-OUT BELIEVER
TEXT: PHILIPPIANS
On Wednesday mornings the guys have been going through the book of Philippians. In fact, we finished up those studies this morning.
And for me, Philippians is a really powerful book. Of course it’s God’s word and God’s word is living and powerful. But what I love about it is how clearly and profoundly the Christian life is presented to us through Paul’s writing. In my Bible it’s just like 3 and a half pages, but in just a few words we see how incredible the Christian life is meant to be. How abundant it’s meant to be. And we hear it from Paul, a guy we esteem and admire and hold high in our minds, who explains that the ideals we sometimes wish for in our faith are really offered to us as assets that are available to us right now.
As we look at the pages of this letter and the rest of Scripture, we discover that what we see in Paul, as far as the power of God and the intimacy with God and the confidence and the contentment and the satisfaction that he demonstrated, those things weren’t reserved for only him and the other Apostles. In fact, it was his understanding that every Christian was meant to receive and experience those things day by day as we abide in Christ and as Christ transforms our lives. Not all of us are going to have the same calling as Paul or the same level of miraculous outpouring, but what he expected the Christian life to be is sometimes very different than what we would characterize our lives as today.
Paul, in this letter, wrote the famous words: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That is perhaps the most famous life-verse out there. It’s printed on every Christian graduation program and is the mission statement for countless Christian organizations. It’s a phrase we’re very familiar with.
Yet, if we’re honest, I think we would have to say that sometimes we don’t feel that statement characterizes our existence here on the earth. More often our lives tend to get defined by our struggles or our shortcomings or our discouragements or other earthly things. We sometimes feel stuck and feel like that intimacy with God that we see in the Bible is far away from us, something we haven’t earned or discovered yet.
Paul opens up this letter and he was so excited for the Christians in Philippi. He starts talking to them about all these incredible things that God wants to do in and through their lives. How he’s so excited and confident about how Christ is going to continue and complete the work He’s begun in their lives. How their love is going to abound in the Lord, both for Him and for others. How the Church is going to be unified and healthy. How their knowledge in spiritual things and discernment are going to grow. How, as they walk with the Lord, they are going to be more and more conformed, holier and holier, shining brightly to the world around them. How fruit is going to abound to their lives and the Gospel is going to go out all over the world and how their rejoicing is just going to overflow day in and day out. All these incredible things.
That’s what Paul expected for them and, by extension, that’s what Christ desires for us today. And it’s not just a theoretical thing, because we see it demonstrated by Paul himself. He’s writing to them and to us while a prisoner in Rome. And along the way he’s encouraging them by saying, ‘Don’t worry about me being in prison. Don’t worry about my suffering. I’m exactly where God wants me to be and I’m satisfied with what God is doing. He’s sufficient for me. I don’t mind being hungry. I don’t mind these physical circumstances. AND I’m not really worried about money. I’m not looking for comfort. I have Jesus and that’s what I want.’
We’ve got to get it through our heads that the Christian life is more than just an eternal destination. What God has laid out in the Bible is a description and demonstration and direction for a life completely changed and revolutionized by the power of heaven. And because God is faithful and gracious, He has given us this book so that we can know what His desire for us is and how we get there!
Even in this little letter that Paul wrote, with all its heavenly promises and all its teaching on what Christ wants to do in us, we also receive some wonderful instruction on how it actually happens and some wonderful encouragement to keep pressing on. How we get there from here and how we connect with God in a way that brings us the kind of confidence and satisfaction that we see exemplified through all of these characters.
Paul, this incredible man of faith was able to say, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,’ but it’s not because he was special and we are not. No, he gives us the secret to the Christian life in the verses leading up to that statement, where he says this in Philippians 4, verses 11 and 12:
Philippians 4.11-12 – …I have LEARNED in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, but to abound and to suffer need.
And that is the other great message of Philippians: That God has given us the ability and the choice whether to engage in this filling that He wants to do in us or whether we don’t want to embrace it. Paul says, ‘Look, I have learned these things as I chose to follow the Lord and embrace His plan for my life.’
Yes, Paul had special gifting, but so do you.
Yes, he had a special calling, but so do you. He is not different than us.
Our Lord does not separate Christians into different classes. He draws you to Himself and says, ‘You are my beloved and My desire is to fill you and complete you and use you in the time and the place where I have sovereignly put you.’ That’s what God wants for us. But we have a part to play.
It’s an unmistakable teaching when you read through this letter that the Christian life does not happen on accident. It takes focus. It takes perseverance. It takes sacrifice and submission. It takes obedience. But, for those who are willing to embrace real Christianity, the stores of heaven open and fill their lives with unbelievable spiritual fruitfulness and contentment and all of those other things that we see demonstrated and yearn for in our own lives.
We all want to get to the place of Philippians 4.13, right? We all desire to get to the place where we can say, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ But if we want that, then we have to engage in this life, choosing the direction given to us in the Scriptures and allow God to take us there by His power as He walks with us through this disciple road He’s called us to.
So, since we know God’s word is His revelation to us, not only of who He is but of what He wants for our lives, let’s look at a couple of key verses from this letter to see how we get going on the disciple road and move forward in that plan that God has for each of us.
First, Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13.
Philippians 2.12-13 – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Love these verses because they so excellently demonstrate what Philippians is all about.
So we look at that and we say, ‘Ok, there is this amazing salvation and transformation that is being offered to me, but is it me working out my salvation or is it God working in me?’
The answer is yes. Both. We are to work out our salvation as God works in us both to will and to do. You’re called to be an In-N-Out Believer. God working in you and you working it outward as you apply this salvation to your life.
Now, quickly, are these verses implying that a Believer can lose their salvation? The answer to that is no. Just looking at this passage contextually, it’s clear that Paul regarded his audience as saints. Brothers and sisters. Members of the Body of Christ. There’s no indication that he thought, even for a moment, that their salvation was in question.
Instead, this verse is exhorting us to apply the power of God and the salvation we’ve received to our daily lives. Because salvation isn’t just a destination. It’s also an implementation. We’re called to apply salvation to our daily lives. God has shown us mercy, so we should show mercy. God has shown us generosity, so we should show generosity. God has shown us love, so we should show love. We have to get away from the kind of thinking that takes our regular life and just adds the Lord or our faith on top of it. Quite the contrary, the call of Christ is one of total and complete surrender. We see an analogy of it in Elisha. Elijah comes along, tosses his mantle, Elisha stops what he’s doing, burns his plow, butchers his oxen and says, ‘Ok, let’s do this.’ Peter, James and John – they received the call, left their nets and went after the Lord.
Does that mean we’ll all be called to literally leave our nets? No. God called Peter to a specific ministry, but He called others to other things. The choice we’ve all received is whether we’re going to actually allow the salvation of Jesus Christ to actually change our lives, if we’re actually going to allow Him to Lord over our everyday, or if we’re going to be more like Simon the Sorcerer in the book of Acts. Where we appreciate parts of God’s power, but also would like to keep in touch with our old life and our old pursuits and our own control over our decisions.
God has given us a thousand page explanation of what He is all about and how it is meant to impact this world. And then we’re told to work it out. Apply Christianity to our actual living. Allow this relationship with God to permeate everything, down to the smallest thing, so that we can receive the abundant things that Christ has planned for us.
Salvation isn’t just a destination. What we must not do is take this Christ and say, “Well, Lord, I’m not interested in what You’re interested in right now, but at the end of my life I’ll find a way to serve You or to sacrifice to You or to submit to You.” People did that in the Gospels and we very plainly look at them and say, “They’re not disciples.” Rich Young Ruler? Nicodemus? They’re not disciples, why? Because they weren’t willing to follow the Lord. The liked Him. They liked some of what He said, but when He came to them and said, “Apply this to your life,” they weren’t willing.
We are commanded to work out our salvation intentionally and carefully because God has a specific place for us in His will. And if we’re not careful to discover the plan of God and the leading of the Spirit, then we’re going to end up in a place He didn’t call us to, working in the power of the flesh instead of the filling of the Spirit. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, if we fail to work out our salvation purposefully and personally, then we become stagnant disciples. People who used to follow the Lord, but stopped at some point and just exist now. Not really receiving the filling because we’re not looking for it. Not being a part of God’s work because we’re just stuck.
Our relationship with God is about us participating in the things He wants to accomplish in us. God working in and us working out. We cannot purify ourselves, but we can allow Him to purify us. We cannot bear fruit of ourselves, but we can allow Him to bear it in us. And, perhaps more significantly, we can hinder God from that which He desires to do in our lives if we fail to obey Him and love Him.
The Lord intends to will and to do in our hearts for His good pleasure. He intends to not only transform us, but then actually use us in significant ways. But if we choose to neglect His will for our lives or if we choose to not apply His salvation to the way that we think and speak and act, then we’re shutting ourselves off from the transformation that He wants for us and we’re shutting ourselves off from all those things that we admire so much about people like Paul and Barnabus and all of our other favorite Bible characters.
It’s important that we individually come to the Lord, willingly submitted, and focus on letting His salvation transform our lives day by day. We have to willfully and purposefully put on Christ and take up a cross to follow the Lord and to receive the blessings He intends for us, otherwise we’ll always be in that place of wilderness, where we’re people of God but we’re not in the land of promise and power that God desired us to be in. We’re Christians, but we become unsatisfied and beset by sin, weighed down by discouragement. It starts by becoming uninterested in the filling of God day by day.
Head on down to chapter 3, verses 13 and 14.
Philippians 3.13-14 – Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
What a great encouragement it is to hear Paul the Apostle say that the pursuit of God is never finished until we enter into eternity. He understood what God had done in his life. He obviously knew how significant his relationship with the Lord was. But he turns to us and says, ‘God wants for you exactly what He wants for me. Intimacy. Love. And if you see my life and want what I have, the key is to press into Jesus.’ That’s it. That’s the deal. It may not always be easy, but it’s never complicated, because the Lord is not far from us, He is near and He is willing and He is able to do all those things He wants to do in and through us.
And what’s interesting to me is that Paul, even here toward the end of his life on the earth, expected that there was more God wanted to do in his life and through his life. He hadn’t stopped growing because he felt Christian enough. That’s something we have to guard against. Because our flesh, the world around us and our enemy the Devil, all want us to hang up our relationship with the Lord. The whole purpose of those adversaries is to get God’s people to divorce their day to day lives from their faith in Christ. And Paul urges us to purposefully press toward God and reach for those things which are ahead. Those people the Holy Spirit has placed on our hearts, that future reward in heaven. We’re to press toward those things and cut away those thorns and tangles that are trying to separate us from Jesus. Focused forward, not backward, behind or around.
If we’re not gaining any ground in our Christian life, something’s wrong. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be perfect or sinless or performing miracles at will. But when fruit isn’t being produced in our lives, then something’s wrong. Because we are to be like trees planted by living waters which bring forth fruit continually. And if I’m stagnant or beset by sin or if I’ve divorced some part of my life away from the influence of Christ, then something is very wrong. That’s not what God plans for us. The Christian life is to be an all-consuming pursuit that defines every aspect of our living. We expect God to speak continually and direct continually and fill us continually because that’s what He’s promised to do.
He’s set it up so that we can choose to let Him be at the helm of our lives or not let Him. The final destination are the glorious shores of heaven. Along the way He has various seas and ports and assignments for us which will accomplish all those good things He wants for us. Our part is to come to Him as Lord and Master and say, ‘Which way do You want me to go? What can I do to speed our journey? Where else might we go today?’
But we’re also free to muscle over and grab hold of the wheel. That happens sometimes. We see a pretty little oasis off to the starboard side and we think it would be nice to summer over there. So we nudge the wheel. God allows us to do that and often times we will find that we’ve driven ourselves into a storm or among jagged rocks or some other calamity that He didn’t desire for us.
But if we understand the amazing goodness of God, then we will focus on the destinations which He has determined. We’ll see them coming and reach out toward them. That is the way to take hold of the prizes of Christ.
Part of that pursuit, Paul says, is to forget those things which are behind. Be they past sins which the Devil tries to use to discourage or trip us, or past victories, which can sometimes cause us to slow our pace. Paul was all about moving forward vigorously.
The question I must ask myself before the Lord is: Am I moving forward in my walk or have I slowed, tripped or stalled? Because God has progress planned for us. It’s not a condemnation, it’s an invitation that the Lord has given that we might find abundant, indescribable life in Him.
Sometimes the things in our past slow us or stall us in our walk with the Lord. They have a tendency to halt our progress. Whether it’s a sin that haunts us or a victory that puffs us up. Our focus is to be what God has placed ahead of us, both here on the earth and our future in heaven.
Look at it this way: If you’re competing to win a marathon, you don’t have time to think about how great you did back at mile 4. “Man, I just CRUSHED it during mile four. I ran so fast. I passed so many people.” Great. But mile 4 is gone. All that’s left is what’s in front. Because if you’re running to win, there has to be singular focus and strenuous effort to get there. And so, one of the keys to living a Spirit-filled life and attaining the kind of confidence and satisfaction we see in Philippians 4.13 is to not let your past control your present or your future. If there’s sin, repent and be set free by God, who is ready to forgive. If there’s great victory in your past, praise the Lord. Give God the glory. Don’t consider yourself finished because you ran a great mile 10 years ago or because God used you back in college or whenever. There are more depths to God’s grace and providence in your life. Keep running to win. That’s what we’re called to.
The Christian life is not meant to be full of disappointment and despondency. It’s meant to be something crazy full. Every few sentences in Philippians it seems Paul is talking about how much rejoicing a Christian can do. We look at the book of Acts and we get all excited just by reading about what God did through people. We see how the Lord orchestrates all of time and space to accomplish His good pleasure and that He gives us gifts and sets before us a path to walk and that on top of all that He goes WITH us in a love relationship like no other.
Yet in America, it seems like a lot of us aren’t enjoying our Christianity. It seems like we’re not overcoming all the earthly stuff down here that the Lord wants to raise us out of. We all struggle. We’re not perfect. That’s not what we’re talking about. But many of us in our culture have stopped anticipating God. We’ve stopped being excited about God. We’ve stopped living out the fact that Christianity is meant to be something completely different than nonChristianity. And when we look into a little book like Philippians, it just doesn’t make very much sense. And, overall, we see in God’s word that He doesn’t want us to miss it. He doesn’t want us to miss out on the incredible plans and power and purpose and filling that He has for us.
He says, ‘I will fill you. I will send you. I will love you, if you are willing.’ Philippians alone makes these incredible promises to us from God that the Lord will guard our hearts, He will transform our lives, He will teach us and use us and glorify Himself in us. He wants to unify the Church and separate us out to make us holier and holier, more and more like His Son. He is faithful to do that work.
And so the question is: Are we willing? Are we pressing? Are we running the race to win the race, at a flat out exertion? Do we understand that the Christian life is more than just a destination?
Jesus came to give us abundant life. We get to Philippians 4.13 by pursuing the Savior and by pressing into Him. We can’t get where our hearts want to go if we’re only obeying him conditionally or partially. We can’t discover the fullness of God if we’re only interested in parts of Him or if we want to retain control of our own lives, which we don’t have anyway.
This is Philippians. The book reveals to us an incredible invitation. It shows God’s intention, our future and how we get there. The grace extended to us is readily available if we’re willing to take up the call. If we do, there is a sure and loving Savior there who will supply all that we need. With Him at the helm, the destination is always good and full. Sometimes He will navigate us through a storm to reach our port, sometimes the place He’s taking us is across a long and barren sea, but in the end, God’s goal is completion, not desolation. His desire is to supply us richly with spiritual fruit and transformation, not leave us to stay in the same state throughout life. And we have to keep ourselves from being tricked into a Christianity that is admiration without pursuit. It’s not always easy, but it is very simple. God’s says, ‘Follow Me.’ The direction is supplied. The strength is supplied. The satisfaction is supplied. The transformation is supplied. But the call of Christ requires action. Real, heart, soul, mind and strength action.
I invite you to pour over this book and see all the things God wants for your life and then the practical instruction on how you overcome discouragement and avoid disunity in the Church and keep from being deceived. How you lay hold of the fullness of God. It doesn’t happen automatically and it doesn’t happen overnight. But if we’re willing to follow the Lord, then the words of Philippians 4.13 that we love so much will be made real in our lives.