Mount Isa Baptist Church

Work It Out

Philippians 2:12-18

From chapter 1:27 to chapter 2:11, Paul had been encouraging the Philippians to “conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” He had been teaching about unity and harmony. He had highlighted Christ's example of perfect obedience and self-sacrifice. With all this in mind, vs.12 starts with this word “Therefore …”, and Paul urges the Philippians to obediently put this teaching that he had been giving them into practice. From vs.12, Paul explains to the Philippian church how to apply what he had been teaching them. Someone has said that the Christian life is not a life of ups and downs, but rather a life of ins and outs. God works in, and we work out.

The theme for this passage is, “WORK IT OUT WITH COMMITMENT!” Paul was aware that obedience to Christ was the key to living the Christian life. There is the problem of obedience in our homes, in our schools, in our government, and even in the Church, but God requires us to be obedient to Him. How hard it is to learn this lesson, and to acknowledge the new authority in our lives! How hard it is for those who have obeyed the flesh to obey the Lord Jesus Christ! But that is required in being a Christian. These Christians were obedient not only in Paul's presence, but also in his absence. A little boy who got saved said to his friend, I got a new heart? His friend said, let me see it! The world is asking us the same question as believers today: if we say we are saved and have a new heart, they want to see some changed actions in our lives. We can’t say that we have got this new heart if we act the same way we always did before we were saved. They should see our living for Jesus, when they look at us, they should see us living for Jesus, they shouldn’t see that old devil which was inside of us. Salvation, it's 100% of God, nothing from our side, because there is nothing we can do that can possibly be enough. It's 100% of God. What is God's response to His Son's obedience? vs.9 – vs.11 tells us: “Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

That is God the Father's response to His Son's obedience. He gave Him the name that is above every name; He exalted Him. But what is our response to the Lord Jesus being obedient? Our response should come from vs.12 as believers. As believers, we should: “Work out your salvation.” Notice what Paul does and doesn't say: Paul doesn't say, “Work for your salvation.” Paul doesn't say, “Work up your salvation.” He says, “Work out your salvation.” In other words, it's something that you already possess as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; we already possess salvation. Now you must work out the implications of that salvation. But how do we do that? Well, if we go back to the text before us today, it tells us how. By being disciplined in our living and diligent in our sharing. If we are to be faithful in working out our salvation, we need to be disciplined in our living. Look at vs.14: Paul is responding here to this incredible salvation that Christ has bought on our behalf, and he says, “Do you know what our response should be to that?” Don't you at this question from Paul, expect something great, something wonderful? Our response to this free gift of salvation, our response to working it out daily, we expect something great. Maybe we would expect Paul to say something like: Be sacrificial in your living or speak truthfully or practice honesty, maintain purity, walk in humility, or practice generosity. Those big, big things that we might think Paul is saying or implying in this passage. But Paul doesn't do that; instead, he actually says that we are to respond by “Doing everything without complaining or arguing.” At first glance, don't you expect more here? But Paul, in the passage here, says that's how he wants us to respond. “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” What is so wrong with complaining and arguing that Paul puts it here in verse 14? What is the big issue with complaining and arguing? At its source, what's so wrong with complaining? At its source, when we groan and moan, we deny God's sovereignty. We are calling into question what we have read in vs.9 and vs.10. We are calling into question that God the Father has exalted His Son and God the Son is seated at the right hand of the Father and that He reigns supreme. When we groan, we are calling into question God's sovereignty. Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? If we say we believe, then we should not grumble and complain. When we do grumble, we are demonstrating an attitude of ingratitude to God's providence. When we moan, we are telling God, “I don't like the way you are ordering my life right now. Maybe we are even arrogant enough to say to God, “l think I can do a better job than you.” I don’t want to leave you there because there is nothing wrong with having a groan every now and again because when we do our spirit is saying, “This is hard, God, this life that you go me on, this path that you got me on is hard and God I’d like maybe something a little bit different, something easier.” But don't fall into the trap of grumbling continually because then we are saying, “You are hard God, and I wish you were someone different.” Before I was a Christian, life was easy. Now that I’m a Christian, life is unfair, and it is hard and difficult. That's what we do when we grumble against God. We are saying: You can’t be trusted, you don't know what you are doing. That's what you are saying, maybe not in those exact words, but when you grumble, that is what you are doing. That's why Paul puts it here in Philippians 2. If you want to work out your salvation, you must be disciplined in your living. There must be that quality of life explainable only in terms of God, and what God has done in our lives, and then, as Paul says, as we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, the light of the gospel will shine into the darkness of where you live. This is what Jesus means when he says, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works.”

Pastor Erik Sitati – From Kenya – connected through our YouTube channel.

I received an amazingly encouraging email from Kenya, which I shared parts of at the church meeting, and I encourage you to be in prayer for this church and also our YouTube ministry that we have the privilege through it to reach people across the world. We serve an amazing God.

About my church and the ministry

It is called CHRIST FELLOWSHIP CHURCH. We are located in continent of Africa in a country called Kenya. We have a small ministry, but we thank God it is growing and touching lives of others in a mighty way. We are blessed serving God with my family and brethren here. We have a heart for the ministry, our heart's desire, hunger, and thirsty is dedicated in Christ work, and we are glad being Christ's witness and ambassadors. We don't preach about ourselves, but preaching only the message of Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our faith.

I'm much blessed being in touch with you and your beautiful church family! I just want to encourage you that we are, and we have been praying for you all as Christ coworkers in His vineyard especially in these dreadful days we are living in.

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

I replied to the email that was sent, and below are some prayer requests that he has asked for:

Pastor Erik Sitati - Christ Fellowship Church prayer requests,

(1) Pray for our ongoing door to door evangelism and outreaches.

(2) Pray for ongoing church construction, pray for open doors we need iron sheets.

(3) About my community pray for thousands who are in devastating situation and starving due to lack of food and water

(4) Pray for God to provide bibles so that we may give to new converts. Below photo show our outreach meeting held recently, and the hunger people have God's Word.