Work Out Your Own Salvation (Philippians 2)

Dave Lorton and Zane discuss some of Paul's words to the Church of Philippi!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello, all my people. Hanging out here with the great Dave Lorton.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Yo. What's up, Dave? You know, another glorious Wednesday at Clear Path Church. Yep. Walking with Jesus today.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yep. Here about to go love on some people.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Around the streets in the neighborhood here and believe that God's gonna do uh we also have Annie over here who's uh doing a running and jumping exercise.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

So we've lost her.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

We have a little entertainment stage right during today's podcast. Well, we're gonna talk a little bit about Philippians 2, starting in verse 12, and we're gonna see what God highlights. Therefore, my dear friends, this is the scripture. I'm not talking to all of you, although you are also my dear friends. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have 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 in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God, without fault, in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky, as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, that's good. You have any quick thoughts on that? Well, a couple things stand out to me. One that's uh, you know, working out your salvation with fear and trembling. That's a pretty constant prayer for me. Like it goes hand in hand with um you know the scripture where Jesus is talking about, many will say on that day, Lord, Lord, and then the other one where he says, When I return will I find faith. So all those two in this one go together a lot for me. And it, I mean, that really it really keeps me close to God as I pray those things, because I mean I never want to be too full of myself or think that I've made it or arrived in in our walk. And I guess that's you know, the work of sanctification is ever progressing as you go down, and and but that's definitely true.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And just to interject on that, you know, on Sunday I was talking about the patterns of revival and how in any outpouring of God that there's always a lot of repentance, right? Yeah, and man, isn't that such a journey where when you when you start to allow God to rid you of the most obvious sins, then you find he reveals sins that you didn't know were there. Yeah, that's a fact. They're just hiding under the surface because you had bigger things to worry about. You know, I had big things. And then the more things that God gets out of your life, the more that he even pulls impurity out of your life, then he starts leading you to repentance for a lack of focus on him, for being distracted, for being pulled around by the world. Or so I think that that working out your salvation with fear and trembling, to me, that's a never-ending process, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Of just just repentance is never seems to be fully over. No, no, I'm I'm very thankful for that. That it's not a, I guess maybe most of my life as I thought of Christianity, that it was like a one and done thing. You know, you said the magical prayer, and then you were you were good, you know, and and that's not what it is. That it's when you're really walk walking with Jesus to steal a phrase that I mean you're literally walking with him. I mean, you're picking up your cross daily, and you're, you know, at moment by moment is what I'm trying to do. I it's not very successful sometimes, but it, you know, that that my focus is to think to try to look at things through the lens of God. Uh like God is sitting right there with me because He is, you know, He's everywhere. And yeah, I'm not always or I haven't always been aware of that, but now I try to do that now.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

So well, I appreciate that you always have that heart. Yeah. And uh we got all kinds of people walking in to join our podcast today. Hey, Mike. You can say hey to the people, Mike. It's fine. Dave Shush me. I shush him. I apologize. Jordan's been walking in, Grace and Naomi are walking in.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I don't steal my spotlight.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

We we recorded a podcast in the lobby, so we asked for this. Yeah. So um anyway, so Dave, when I think about you and just getting to watch your process in the Lord over the past how many years has it been?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

10 years here.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

10 years? Okay. So 10 years ago, whenever you uh the Lord led you here to join us, I mean shout out to Amber and her 40th, now 50th birthday.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

That's how I how we started coming.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yep. Amber asked uh us to have a worship night for her 40th birthday. That's right. And Dave came to that, and he had he had spent time in church in the past, but had kind of sworn away church.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

And God just grabbed a hold of him that night.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

And I don't I don't remember making a decision to keep coming. We just kept coming.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah. Sure. In those 10 years, though, the amount of change that I've gotten to watch in you as your friend has been uh quite delightful, quite exciting to see. Yeah. And so now, uh when I read this next line of this scripture, do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault and a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. So, but it starts with do everything without grumbling or arguing. And I think that you have embodied that really well over the last 10 years. You are a servant, and uh you just show up and you do things that people don't really want to do without complaining. And uh you do things that I'm certain that you don't feel like doing without complaining. And I think that's really cool. And you have uh, these are just my thoughts off the top, but I think people could learn from you because I think that what you have done is out of love, you have obligated yourself. And I think that I've heard a lot of people talk about Christianity. Don't I don't want to do anything that I don't want to do, because then I'll just be doing it out of obligation. Yeah. But the truth is that because we love each other, because we love God, because we love people that don't know him yet, we actually obligate ourselves and our schedules to each other, to God to show up constantly and to not complain about doing it, you know, even when we don't feel like it.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah. Do you have any thoughts on that? Oh, I do. It's uh two things that as you were saying all that. One, I was thinking about, yeah, you don't ever drive in a car with me. Like this morning, I'm rushing to get to an appointment and the guy cuts me off, and I'm like, ah, you know, and I'm like, oh, I guess I'm grumbling. That that convicted me. But the uh the flip side to that is is, you know, we have a broken trash can out front, and I just got to fix it. You know, I just put the wheel back together and drug the thing over there, and I was just struck by that. I I just was overcome with gratitude. I mean, it I'm I'm over there weeping tears over a trash can because thank you, God, that I that I get to do anything for you. You know, and and it may sound corny or hokey or whatever, but it got me. I'm standing on the side of the building with the broken trash can, kind of crying and thanking God and being grateful for just this change that he's wrought in my life, that he's just kind of, you know, just put the breadcrumbs out there and I followed along and without even really thinking a whole lot about it, you know. It just he just God is good. I mean, he's just really good. That's that's try it to say, but it's it's the absolute truth. He is good, he's a good loving father, and and he's changed my whole life, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

So man, we could just finish right there. That's that's amazing. Um man, I I I definitely agree, you know. Obviously, Tiffany and I have put at this point, you know, given a 16 and a half of years of our life to this church and some years to a church before this one in ministry. And I don't say that to brag on me. I I say it to brag on the Lord and to brag on the church. We always talk about how, and Jordan always we Jordan and I have had this conversation 180 times of how we've poured so much of our life into the ministry, but what we've received back for what we've poured in has been so beyond what we've poured into it. I mean, I've I've worked a lot for this church, but at the same time, the people of this church and the process God's taken me through and the adventures in the Holy Spirit that He's taken me on as we've gone through the processes of this church, I could not, I could not ask for anything more than that. Yeah, you know? And so I'm always struck by how, and as you do that over the years, hopefully what you get is an attitude that doesn't want to complain or grumble, yeah, or even argue. You know, the arguing getting caught up in the little side things of Christianity, a little argument over this, what does this scripture mean? Right, or a little argument over who wronged who, and people, you know, getting some bitterness or unforgiveness and letting tension come into their relationships within the church. Or I just think of all the little things that come with complaining and arguing. And the longer that I follow the Lord, the less that I want to do that because the more that I'm just thankful that even the things that I didn't feel like doing, they play out to be so fruitful in my life. Yeah. And my life is so revolutionized and changed by the goodness of God and the love of his people, that I just don't know why anyone wouldn't want to do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

I agree. Yeah, I agree. And it shows, it shows I tell people all the time who don't go to church here that when I'm talking about my church, I just say that it's just filled with just real people, you know. Everyone who uh preaches and everyone who serves and everyone who attends, they're just you know, it doesn't seem like there's any, I don't know, church. Yeah. You know, it's just like it's like a big family and it's and it's real. People are genuine and honest, and um yeah, I just love it.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

You know, Paul finishes this passage that we read and he says, even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering on a sacrifice, then I'm glad and I rejoice. Yeah. And man, we know that he, I mean, you know, Paul was getting beaten and imprisoned and shipwrecked and all kinds of crazy things. Yeah. And his response to it, in this great humility that he talks about surrounding this passage, in this great humility, he's just glad to be of service to God. He just, he has resolved himself to the idea that if his life can be poured out before God, no matter how unpleasant that might lead him into a situation, that he is going to find joy in it.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And I think that a lot of times in life we find our joy in circumstances. And Paul has just learned to not find his joy in his circumstances, but to find his joy seemingly in pleasing God. Yeah. And the the beauty is that we are we actually have the opportunity to please God in any and every circumstance, right? Yeah. And so, what's up, Daniel? We're finishing a podcast here. But hello. You're good. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So very clear pathy in there.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, we're this is very clear path. We're just having all kinds of random people jump in the podcast with us. So, anyway, I just I'm inspired by Paul's seemingly not even just being okay with it, yeah, but rejoicing and being glad, finding joy even in the hard moments of working for the gospel.

unknown 13:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

It's good. You want to pray that people, that God will affect people's hearts like that and close us out? Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

So, God, we love you. We thank you for who you are. And and I love to use the word mindful. Chandra uses that word, and it man, it just it just hits it right between the eyes. That I thank you that how mindful you are of us, God, and and all the things in our lives, Lord. I pray that you make us aware of um you know everything in life that points to you, Lord, that we would uh look at things through the lens of how you um have uh blessed us and that we would count it all joy, no matter on the high highs or the low lows and everything in between, God, that we would just take joy in it, joy that you put in our hearts, and we thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Amen. And you know what? You guys hear all these people walking in up here to come uh pray together and then go share the good news of Jesus with people, you should come. Yeah, if you're not here right now, you should feel a little jealous because we have a good time and God works in people's hearts. We've seen salvations, we've seen people uh even just having great life changes. It's just it's amazing. Come join in with us soon. Love you all. Keep reading that scripture. See ya.