Come thou fountain every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing off the songs of loudest praise To teach me some melodious signing sung by flaming tongues and love Praise the Gunter fixed upon it Mount of Hightaining love you have raised by the knee in the womb I stay to love me with stranger one It's a danger It's gold is precious blood precious blood Oh to grace I greater Daily am constrained to me So let thy goodness like a fet by no one dream God to me Won't you understand Bro to leave the God I love Here's my Lord take it still that go to love Prompty under Lord I feel it Prom to leave the God I love Here's my heart Lord Take and see it Seal it for that courts above Here's my heart Lord take and see it seal it for that quartz above Hi Redeemer This is Pastor Russ for our midweek Bible chat devotion.
We were in Philippians 2.
Last week we read these two verses in Philippians.
This is this letter that Paul is writing from prison, and yet while in prison, he's writing more about joy than any of his other letters.
Here in Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, here's what we get.
We're gonna break this down a little bit more this week than we did last week.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but 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 work for his good pleasure.
So I think two questions pop up here.
What do I do and how do I change?
What does it mean, this work out your own salvation?
What does that mean?
What am I supposed to do?
And how does that work?
How do I change?
How do I grow?
How do I mature?
How do I go deeper?
So the first point is sort of a macro level point coming out of this passage is that all of us work out of our salvation, all of us work out our salvation.
All of us work out our salvation.
You just get that from this whole passage.
We talk about this all the time in our church that we all work out our salvation, meaning we all walk paths of how to be saved, how to feel saved, how to feel whole or redeemed from our failures or our sin or our anxiety or fears, what can absolve me?
Where can I finally find rest for my soul?
So, of course, the good news that Paul is sharing is the good news is that God gives this.
God gives this salvation.
Here in this passage, he says, You are the beloved.
Philippians 1 and coming up into 2, this is Paul pouring out the good news that Jesus, his work on the cross, gives to us an absolution from our sin and gives us an identity as his beloved.
So we're all gonna work something out.
We're all gonna work something out for value and worth and wholeness and salvation and redemption.
And the question is, what are we working out?
Are we working out a gift given to us?
Are we working out something we need to chase?
Are we working out a gift given to us, or are we working out something we need to chase, something we need to earn or perform?
Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and author, here's what he writes thinking about Philippians 2.
It is not mere rule following behavior, but your actual identity that is radically changing you.
Henceforth you do things because they are true, not because you have to or you are afraid of punishment.
Now you are not so much driven from without the false self method, but you are drawn from within the true self method.
The generating motor is inside you now instead of a lure or a threat from outside.
So the point in this quote that I just love is that we have an identity that is changing us.
It is not change that comes by us performing up to something, but it is change that comes as we unwrap the gift already given to us.
And so that's our second point.
That which we work out is that which is already given to us.
Verse 12 is Paul calling these people beloved, and then he says, work out your salvation, meaning you're working out the very thing you already have.
And of course, we're working it out with fear and trembling, not because you might lose it, but because it is that important.
And we're working that acceptance that we have, this belovedness.
We're working that into the sense of our security, our woundedness, our idolatry, our value, purpose, anxiety, fear, our marriage, our friendship, our relationships, our future, our career, or sex, our money, or school, retirement, even our death.
We are working out what does it mean that we are God's forever beloved?
And in all of that work, and that is work, that is real effort in the grace of God.
It's not earning, but it's effort.
We are free to work this out.
What a disorienting reality that you are working out something you are already given, something you already are.
You're discovering that which you have already been proclaimed to be in Jesus, fully righteous, fully forgiven, and fully his beloved.
Now, what does that mean for you?
What is that?
What do you do?
Well, uh, maybe it means you you begin to listen more to the Holy Spirit whispering in your heart.
Maybe it means you begin to read more, or study the scriptures, or meditate, or take long walks, or breathe, or sing, or cook, or rest, or serve, or teach, or give money away.
Maybe it means all of that.
Maybe it means you repent quicker and you laugh more, as my mentor said.
So what do you do?
I don't know exactly.
But I know as you get quiet and begin to slow your heart down, the Lord will lead you.
How do you change?
Well, the Lord will change you as you put yourself in the position of a slow and contemplative heart before Him, of more surrender, greater repentance, quicker repentance because you're already beloved, because you're already loved, you're already secure.
And maybe you're gonna begin to see some changes in your heart where you care for people a little bit more.
Maybe you're gonna see that quicker repentance.
Maybe you're gonna see uh some shifting from rules to love.
Maybe you're gonna form some practices you didn't think you would ever be interested in.
Maybe you're gonna find some discovery in yourself about some woundedness and idolatry you didn't know was there, and you're gonna want to talk that out with somebody.
And you never thought you would go that deep into your own heart and soul, and you never thought you would become that free.
And see, you're changing by the Holy Spirit working in you the gospel that you are already His beloved, a gift already given to you.
So, what are you working out today?
Are you working out a gift already given to you, or are you trying to chase something you'll never get to?
My brothers and sisters, you're the beloved, may you work out your salvation with great fear and trembling.