WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:07.919 Well, I'm excited about this morning for us because it brings up this really big question in faith. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:13.839 And that is, is what is my role in change and my change? 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:16.480 What is my role in maturing? 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:18.960 What's my role in growing and deepening? 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:23.280 And then, or is all that based in God? 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:26.800 Like, is it meet God halfway? 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:32.000 Is it I'll go halfway and then God will come halfway and then change will occur? 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:35.359 Or is it let go and let God? 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:41.920 Now, now, Paul, in this text, this text is so great for us to understand because of this issue, and this is an issue that we all feel, right? 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:46.320 Because Paul is writing to a church, a group of people who are struggling. 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:49.119 They're complaining, they're bickering, they're divided. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:50.960 They are not where they need to be. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:52.560 They need to go somewhere else. 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:55.200 They need change, they need maturity, they need growth. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:57.840 So that's why he's saying, hey, verses 14 through 18. 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:04.079 He's saying, hey, stop grumbling, stop complaining, be different, is what he's saying. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:08.239 So he's saying, I want you to change. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:10.159 He wants this for them. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:12.480 But how does that happen? 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:14.719 How does that happen for them? 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:16.879 How does it happen for you? 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:20.079 For whatever that issue is. 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:21.920 How does it happen? 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:37.439 Because we've heard teachings that really quite effectively delivered to us, and in one place we go into a place and we hear a good teaching and we hear it and we hear how we should grow and how we should change and how we should mature and the things we should do. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:40.959 And we leave and we go, Oh, I I've got to get my act together. 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:43.680 I'm not changing, I'm not maturing, I'm not growing. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:45.200 I need to get my act together. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:52.400 I'm gonna get my list, I'm gonna get my practices, I'm gonna get my Bible reading plan, and I'm gonna, I am going to handle this. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:54.560 I'm gonna get this done. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.840 I am buckling down, I will make it happen. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:00.079 I will meet God halfway. 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:05.200 Now, we go into other places, we could go somewhere else, and another really effective teaching, right? 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:11.280 And you leave that place and you go, oh, I can't believe how moralistic I've been. 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:13.599 I can't believe how legalistic I've been. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.719 I can't believe how much I've been focused on my behaviors. 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:18.879 I can't believe how self-dependent I've been. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:21.680 I am worn out, hell with the list. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:22.639 I'm done. 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:24.000 I'm done with it. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:25.280 I'm, you know what? 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:28.319 All I do is rely on myself, and I'm exhausted. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:34.000 I am letting go of all of that, and I'm just gonna, whatever God does is what God does, right? 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:35.520 And we can see both extremes. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:36.479 So what is it? 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:37.599 What is it? 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:38.879 Right? 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:40.240 Which is it? 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:46.000 And the easy thing to do is just right at this moment to go, well, it's a balance, right? 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:47.039 That's what we love to say. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:47.759 It's a balance. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:55.680 And usually when we say that, that's us wanting to control something, us wanting to reason something that seems a little bit at tension. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:08.479 And the reality here is not a balance, it's two things here that are very, very difficult for us to come in understanding with, and it's more of an embrace of a mystery and a tension. 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:13.199 And for many of us, what I just said is a disorienting reality. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:18.319 And I've been learning about this a lot lately, that that's what growth is, right? 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:30.000 You're you're oriented into something, you think something, you're told something, you're oriented into something, and then there's a disorientation, a disorienting reality, and then you're reoriented into something else. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:30.479 Right? 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:31.840 I was thinking about this this week. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:38.000 So I think it was Wednesday night we had those big thunderstorms, maybe where you live, maybe you had them, big thunderstorms, huge rain. 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:40.159 It came at about like eight o'clock at night, I think. 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:45.439 And so at our house, our girls were in bed, two had fallen asleep, two kept sleeping, no problem. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:52.400 Another one came out, our oldest, she came out and she came out, she just sat with me, and we looked out the window, and we just looked at just the rain. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:55.120 I mean, it was pouring, right? 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:00.879 Like waves and sheets, just tons and tons and tons and tons of rain. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.039 And that cracking thunder. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:04.800 I mean, it was it was strong. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:07.520 I mean, it you know, make you jump a little bit, even as a grown-up. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:10.080 You're like, I know I'm safe, but I'm still a little scared. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:20.639 And so you're looking at all this rain, and my daughter, two years previously in second grade, she learned that there was not a bucket up in the sky being poured out. 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:26.399 There was no hose, there's no like lake in the sky being drained, right? 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.680 Because that would be the common thing to think as a child. 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:33.839 There's got to be just a lake up there and then somehow gets released and it comes down. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:39.360 But then to learn, right, like as a seven-year-old would learn in second grade, you would learn, no, no, no, no, no. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:49.439 Like it's it's warm, wet air that comes up from down here, up to there, and then it turns into water and comes back down. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:57.439 So you're oriented into some thinking, and then you learn something which disorients the original thought, and then you have to reorient yourself. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:59.279 And you know what I'm talking about, right? 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:05.279 Like imagine imagine Pythagoras in the sixth century when he discovers the world's not flat. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:07.199 Imagine that. 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:14.399 I mean imagine, or just now, think think about the fact that the universe is still expanding. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:15.519 What? 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.360 Like, like like the oriented thought would be it's set. 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:23.519 Now the disoriented thought is like it's still expanding into what? 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:24.399 What is it expanding? 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:26.319 Oh, it's expanding into nothing. 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:30.560 Okay, there's attention that I have to reorient myself toward. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:34.959 Or I learned this week, Paris Hilton became a DJ. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:38.480 Okay, apparently, this is disorientation. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:41.920 Apparently, there's a group of people that love this. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:46.720 They love this this much, she makes up to a million dollars a gig. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:48.959 That's disorientation. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:53.519 The orientation is how did she ever have a career? 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:54.560 That's the orientation. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.600 The orientation is it's over for her. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:05:59.360 Like she had her time. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.360 The disorientation is she became a DJ. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:09.120 Really disorienting is she makes up to a million dollars a gig, right? 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:12.800 All of us just want to go lock ourselves in a closet when we hear that. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:13.279 Right? 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.160 So I gotta reorient my reality around something I just learned. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:19.360 Now, okay. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:20.959 Why am I telling you all this? 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:24.000 Because this, we love the idea of an equation for growth. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:25.920 We love the idea of something we can control. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:27.920 Or put it, it'll just be balance. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:28.480 I'll balance it. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:29.279 That's what I'll do. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:33.040 I do this, God does this, and this happens, or this happened in my life because of that. 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:39.680 And if this happens, then this will work out this way, and God will do this because of that, or I will let go. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:41.759 Here, this is what my equation will be. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:44.000 I will let go and God will do all the work. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:49.199 Or I'll go the other way and I'll walk halfway. 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:50.879 God will walk halfway. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:56.240 We'll meet beneath an old Georgia pine, Diamond Rio, 1991. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:58.879 Thank you very much for a few of you. 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:03.920 See, Paul disorients us by saying this. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:11.360 And this is disorienting, because orientation would be let go and let God, or I meet God halfway. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:15.199 The disorienting thing is verses 12 and 13. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:17.040 You are beloved. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:19.519 It's done. 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:21.920 And work that out. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:24.879 And God's doing the work. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:27.120 That's very disorient. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:30.959 That disorients you into attention. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:36.079 Because the orientation would be either I do it or God does it. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:41.920 The disorientation is the truth, which demands us to reorient into some level of mystery. 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.079 Listen again to verses 12 and 13. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:49.199 Therefore, my beloved, there's the promise, therefore, my beloved, this is who you are, I'm calling you this. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:08:01.439 As you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more 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. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:06.560 So, to me, two questions just surfaced to me this week as I just kept rereading this text. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:09.120 And the first is it's like, so what do I do? 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:11.439 Okay, so what do I do? 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:15.600 And second is it's like, okay, so then like how does how does change happen in me? 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:19.040 If all everything you just said is true, what do I do and how do I change? 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:20.959 So a couple of points to get us there. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:27.839 Point number one, we talk about this all the time here, and this is this all of us work out our salvation. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:34.960 Every single person who has ever been born works out their salvation. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:36.000 Here's what I mean. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.480 Here's my nice prop for today. 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:39.519 Here we go. 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:43.759 I was hidden back there because I knew that'd distract you all during worship that big old carrot. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:49.679 So do you remember, do you remember carrot and a stick, the concept of carrot and a stick? 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:56.559 So so like if you were you're driving a cart and you had a mule tied to the front and in this situation, I'm the mule, I'm okay with that. 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:07.759 And and you hang the carrot out in front so that just every step that the mule takes, he's going after the thing he wants, but he never quite gets there. 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:08.399 Right? 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:11.600 And this is good for production, but it's horrible for your heart. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:13.279 This is horrible for your heart. 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:16.480 And this is not how salvation is done. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.919 This is not how absolution is handled or value is created in you. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.279 See, the carrot in this situation is that bad promise. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.080 It's a promise that you're always gonna move toward. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:42.799 And you think, if I can just get there, like if I if I only, if I could just, that next level of spirituality, if I just become a little bit better person, and that next thing on the to-do list, if I only get a little better, if I only get that, if I only get that, if I only get, then I'll be saved. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.840 Then that'll that'll be the working out of salvation. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:47.600 And we all do this. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:50.799 We do this in so many, so many different ways. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.559 It's all over the place. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:10:07.200 We all work out our salvation, meaning we all walk paths of being saved or trying to at least feel saved from our failures and our sin, our anxiety and fears. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:09.120 I mean, it's what you're asking. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:10.799 What can redeem me? 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.039 What can absolve me? 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:17.360 Like, what can absolve me from just sort of feeling guilty? 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:19.919 Just carrying that. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:25.840 And and to risk a really bad rhyme, the the carrot is merit. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:26.879 That's what it is. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:34.240 The carrot is merit, and the carrot is in religion and churches and faiths and workplaces and families. 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:37.039 But the carrot is not in the gospel. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:39.279 That's not what the gospel is. 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:44.000 The gospel is the good news of a giving of salvation to you. 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:50.559 In Christ on the cross, he gives to us absolution, salvation. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:52.000 We are absolved. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:55.039 We have a new identity formed as his beloved. 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:56.960 This is what the cross tells us. 00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:59.440 It's the opposite of chasing after a carrot. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:02.240 Now listen to this, listen to this, because the question is this. 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:05.200 The question is, what are we working out? 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:06.799 What is it we're working out? 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.360 Are we working out a chase, right? 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:10.960 Like, oh, it's always the next thing. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:14.240 Or are we working out a gift that's already been given? 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:18.639 Listen to this quote by Richard Rohr, who's a mystic priest and author. 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:31.600 Our carrot on the stick approach to religion is revealed by the fact that one is never quite pure enough, holy enough, or loyal enough for the presiding group. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:43.679 The good news of an incarnational religion, a spirit-based morality, is that you are not motivated by any outside reward or punishment, but actually by participating in the mystery itself. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:46.320 Carrots are neither needed nor helpful. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:54.960 It is God who, for God's own loving purpose, puts both the will and the action into you. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:02.000 It is not mere rule-following behavior, but your actual identity that is radically changing you. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:08.720 Henceforth, you do things because they are true, not because you have to or you are afraid of punishment. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:19.440 Now, you are not so much driven from without, which is the false self method, but you are drawn from within the true self, the identity change. 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:26.720 The generating motor is inside you now instead of a lure or a threat from outside. 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:28.960 So this leads to point number two. 00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:34.720 That which we work out is that which that's already been given. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:35.679 Right? 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:39.679 That's why the order of this text is Paul says, beloved. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:41.360 He already calls them that. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:43.840 Beloved, work out your salvation. 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:47.200 Oh, by the way, it's God who works it out. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:48.240 Right? 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:55.759 We work out our belovedness as to work our belovedness into the deepest parts of our hearts. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:57.120 We're already beloved. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:02.960 But we work it out to work the belovedness into the deepest parts of who we are. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:05.120 That's what working it out is. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:07.519 You're working it into you. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:11.679 And you're working it out in fear and trembling because it's just so vitally important. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:45.759 Not because you might lose it, it's just so vitally important for our lives to work that acceptance out into your sense of security, your marriage, your purpose, your failures, your anxiety, your guilt, your fear, your marriage, your friendship, your sex, your money, your school, your retirement, and even your death all of that, that's working it out, working your belovedness into yourself. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:49.279 And it's our only hope. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:53.840 Because I struggled to put together an IKEA desk. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:58.799 How am I gonna figure out my impatience and where that came from? 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:02.879 I mean, how am I gonna see my how do you see your blindness? 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:07.840 Unless the Spirit of God is in you helping you see your blindness? 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:12.399 Or to understand my insecurities and my fears, right? 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:14.960 And like what carrots I'm chasing? 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:16.559 How am I gonna see that? 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:20.720 I mean, we need God to be doing the work in us. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:22.320 Beloved, work it out. 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.000 God's doing the work. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:25.759 And so back to question. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:26.720 I said two questions. 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:27.279 What do I do? 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:28.080 What do I do? 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:33.759 Well, you learn, you listen, you read, you meditate, you walk, you breathe, you sing, you cook, you rest, you serve, you teach. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:34.559 It's all of it. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:35.759 It's all of life. 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:37.039 It's in all of life. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.279 The working it out is in all of life. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:43.919 So I can't give you a list for what it is, but I do know it's all of it. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:58.559 And I know it's whatever it requires for you to remember more and more and more the good news of your acceptance and your absolution and your forgiveness and your security and your belovedness, because that's the working it out. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:03.279 How do you change? 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:13.120 Well, maybe your change is to stop caring about change so much, which paradoxically would be a be a change. 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:21.120 But also, maybe maybe your change would be that you haven't ever cared about change and you're apathetic and you need to care about change. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:24.960 I mean, maybe it's a shift from rules to love. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:32.399 Maybe it's it's it's to form, but then maybe it's also to form some practices in your life to work this into yourself. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:37.759 Times to remember the cross so that you can see the carrots. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:56.480 And maybe then you'll you'll find your identity working itself out, the more centered self, rooted in your belovedness, patient and kind and loving, a non-judgmental presence toward yourself and toward your neighbor. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:59.919 So, what are you working out each day? 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:04.240 I don't know, what are you working out each day? 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:08.399 Are you working out a gift that's been given to you? 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:14.320 Or are you working out some chase, some carrot or hanging from a stick? 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.559 Are you working out the thing that's already been given to you? 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:31.679 So, my brothers and sisters, beloved, you are beloved through the crucified Christ risen for your sake. 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:33.279 Let's pray together. 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:49.200 And God, we thank you for the gift of Jesus for us, that we may be called beloved, that we may be beloved even while we are sinners, and that we are absolved of our sin through Jesus' death and resurrection. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:55.039 Help us to work out this great salvation. 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:08.480 Help us to find greater and greater peace as we discover and know our identity greater and greater as your beloved. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:10.720 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:11.599 Amen.