 Today we're in chapter 2 of Philippians. Let's read beginning at verse 12. I'll read verses 12 through 18 and We'll get into our study holding fast the word of life So beginning at verse 12 reading to verse 18 Paul says 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 Do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless Children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Among whom you shine as lights in the world Holding fast the word of life So that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith I'm glad and rejoice with you all for the same reason you also be glad Rejoice in me And so Paul is encouraging the church here in chapter 2 verses 12 through 18 and What he's encouraging them to is to actually obey the appeal that he had just given to them now The the appeal that he made was found in verses 5 through 11 We looked at that last time we were together and that appeal was that they would humbly serve the Lord that that appeal Was so that they might serve Jesus Christ with humility and use Jesus as their example And that they would live together in peace and harmony as a community of believers And so that's his appeal and that's what he's encouraging the church to do and so he's saying you have always obeyed So what he's basically saying is even as you've been obeyed in the past I want you to obey what I'm writing to you now and what I'm writing to you Relates to the service you're giving to God and the attitude that you have Notice how he says in verse 12 my beloved as you've always obeyed not as in my presence only So he wants to develop something even further and I want you to see how he does this This is actually something that's very very inspired. It's it's really of the Lord He's about to give them a command, but I want you to see how he begins to give that command notice How he's doing it He's already appealing to them to to do what he has said, but he's going to go further in this command And so I want you to see how he begins this he begins by simply referring to them in a very beautiful way He says you're my beloved In other words, I love you very dearly When you give an order even as paul is about to give an order It's always best to let the person know that you're ministering to and you're actually encouraging Let them know that you love them You don't give people orders just because you like to give orders You give orders if you're in the ministry you give an order or command of the lord Because you love them and they need to know that you love them So he begins by addressing them with affection notice he calls them my beloved as as a teacher Paul not only saw them as individuals who would be able to go out with instruction and And take the gospel out to the world and all which would be his desire. He wants people to know jesus christ But he wants them to know that that at the heart of that command Is a love for them I really believe strongly that ministers of the gospel Have been called by god To love those whom god has given to them to shepherd There's a love in their heart For those whom god has given to them and and paul is revealing a great great love for these people So as he's reminding them he's calling them my beloved as he's reminding them of his love for them He also gives them an order Now notice how he says you have always obeyed In other words, you have a history Of being sensitive To obey the orders that have been given to you Now as you've obeyed it's not just that you're obeying some man by the name of paul's some apostle It goes much deeper than that You see by obeying the command that paul is giving you're actually Demonstrating an obedience to a higher authority than paul In your obedience. It's not just the man that you're obeying You're obeying the god who gave the command And so in doing so you're demonstrating your faith You see faith naturally is demonstrated By obedience i've been sharing this with you It you know bears our petition at this moment But i've been sharing with you that that there's a different way that people think and during the time of the apostle paul If you were a greek a gentile Then for you Knowledge would really be demonstrated by simply gathering information And so you'd show that you had knowledge because you had gathered a lot of information and And even to this day because our educational system is very much based on the greek method of of learning information You can demonstrate that you have knowledge because you have letters after your name So you have a bachelor's degree or a master's degree or a doctrine and and those letters that you have phd or whatever those letters Demonstrate that you have information it demonstrates that you spent some time Gathering information assimilating information And actually giving that information out in tests and things like that and through some practice and also Americans will see the Education as being an information based kind of thing, but the heivers didn't think that way For them the gathering of information was good because you needed to have the right knowledge But knowledge was always demonstrated by obedience So when you when you knew god you would obey god That's that's how they would see things and to this day That's how they would see things and and that's what jesus would say to us He he would ask the question. Um, why do you call me lord? Lord And do not the things Which i say Jesus would say if you love me If you love me Keep my commandments And so it wasn't simply gathering information for the jew it was to have knowledge But to obey or act on that and so paul is saying you have always obeyed You have demonstrated that you don't just gather information you have demonstrated in the past That when you have the proper information you act on that information And so faith is is always demonstrated by obedience obedience to jesus christ In romans in chapter one verse five paul wrote to the roman church and he said through him and for his namesake We received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles notice to the obedience that comes from faith And so when paul was speaking to the philippians here He was saying i want you to obey because your history has been demonstrated That you do obey and so in your obedience to jesus christ You're also going to yield to the authority of paul as one of his ministers Because paul had received his ministerial authority From jesus christ And there is an obligation on the part of the philippians To yield to god given authority now that doesn't mean And i hasten to add this and i want to develop this for just a moment That just because some pastor says to do something that you do it You don't take your your brain and your will and and all that you know and just Leave it in a trash can as you enter into a church. You ought to listen always with discernment You ought to test those things to say whether see whether those things are true or not I mean that's just basic christianity The bereans were more noble because they would hear what paul had to say and then they would check the Scriptures diligently to see if these things were so And so that's an important aspect obviously you don't just just believe because somebody said it You shouldn't be gullible and shouldn't be naive But at the same time if it is there if it is rightly divided and you're not using a disobedient heart simply Um as an excuse to to not do something that you're uncomfortable with simply because it challenges and convicts you But when you actually will look at the word and test the word and say indeed it says that You're actually demonstrating a faith in god and you're going to grow because christ will manifest himself to you And it also is a joy for the individual who ministers to you because For for me as a pastor Whether i like it or not i have to give an account I give an account to god for you And i don't really like having to admit that but that's true In the book of hebrus in chapter 13 if you take notes, it's found in hebrus 13 verse 17 The writer writes obey your leaders submit to their authority They keep watch over you as men who must give an account Obey them so that their work will be a joy and not a burden For that would be of no advantage to you So ultimately i as a minister have a greater greater accountability james said That you shouldn't desire to be a teacher knowing that you have a stricter accountability or a greater judgment or greater There's a greater accountability that i have before god because because i'm studying the word of god And i'm presenting the word of god and therefore when i stand before god i have a great accountability to him So it's a joy for me when i give a bible study and people actually Act on it It's once in a while it happens and and i do have happy spells once blue moon One of the brothers was sharing with me today just as i walked in just as i came in here this evening He was saying that this morning's message as some of you or most of you are probably there Related to husbands loving their wives and this and that He said, you know, i was standing outside and Should have seen all the guys holding the wives hands and things like that. No, that gives me great joy Now i'm hoping it was their wives that they were holding hands with i i didn't think about that But at least it was romance that's a start But their obedience Their obedience to the lord jesus christ is demonstrated through their obedience to those whom he has appointed And to paul is rejoicing to know that they have a history of obedience Now notice he says in verse 12 my beloved as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only But now much more in my absence You have a history of obedience Whether i'm there or not You have an obedience because it's not just with that kind of What would be called in the old king james not with ice service as a man pleaser You know everybody is a great employee when the bosses walking through the office Oh, are they they're diligently working? Oh, yes. Oh, i've been here for hours boss, you know Well, what happens when the boss is on vacation? You know that really demonstrates Whether or not you're a good employee or not what happens when you're the only person in the office and nobody's there except for you You know, are you there doing the work or do you have the You know you fishing on the net looking at different things. That's you know, that's that's your conscience and and between you and the lord But it goes more than than simply being in my presence see my kids were perfect as long as i was in the room You know, they always were obedient as long as i was there It what were they like on their own when nobody's watching is a different story entirely Not just my kids. That's how i was. I think that's pretty much humanity. That's the way human beings are Are you not the best driver in the world when a cop is behind you? Are you not man, you know training on your turn signals stopping at a stop sign really stopping One two three and then driving that kind of thing All right Courteous that phone now it's down there. You're not talking on the phone. No, you're just totally a hundred percent. Does it say 25? I'm going 25 does it say 50 once he's gone It looks like the start of the indianapolis 500. Who everybody goes and blows patent people That's the way it is So our human nature is of such that when we have somebody tailing us or watching us That's one thing Because we can look like the most strong and most beautiful christian and the most loving Oh, praise the lord, you know, god is good Let me tell you a story Years ago probably 20 years ago or so Several pastors. I mean a ton of us probably 15 or 20 of us went with pastor chuck on the footsteps of paul cruz Where we went to the seven churches of the revelation Now we joined with pastor chuck and k On the tour but chuck was going to the To turkey to see the churches Uh directly from israel And so I have a picture of all of us there. There probably was more closer to 30 than than the 15 or 20 I mentioned that there were a ton of us pastors. So there we are On this huge bus And we're all the pastors that our close friends are in the very back of the bus And we are laughing and messing around for two days I know you don't believe that raw And I and and and So I could start naming guys, you know their names We're in the back laughing We're so loud that we're interrupting the tour guide is they're trying to say and this is We're laughing. I mean having a great time So the first day we're in the back there. It's pouring rain and there's just You know, we're bored and so we're telling ministry stories and and and just goofing off with one another Then the second day We do it again. We're in the back We took up all the back row and we're laughing and just being silly the third day Karen Johnson jeff johnson's wife walks to the back of the bus as we're about to take off And she looks at us like a stern mother and says chuck wants you in the front Oh We're in trouble. I mean like kids. We're like we're like children. Oh man. We're in detention, you know, we're just So we all go to the front of the bus and he's got all of us sitting all the front rows just sitting next to chuck And we're just all real quiet like a bunch of bad boys. We're just gonna And rawl starts doing his devotions behind chuck And I looked at him. I said you haven't read that book weeks And now you're acting like you're doing your devotion so chuck can see you Come on rawl liar So we are good boys But you know what happened we started it up in the front And now chuck is part of it and And k k tells us, you know chuck could hear you guys in the back And he was really bothered because he wanted to have fun with you That's why he brought you to the front So he could be laughing with you guys, you know But I'm you know rawls pretending he's doing his devotions. I think oh, I know As long as we have someone watching us We're pretty good But what am I like When nobody's watching well, that's what paul's talking about he says you've had a history of obedience You have had that history. He says not as in my presence only But now he says much more in my absence You are demonstrating in other words your real love for god Because you don't need somebody to watch over you You do this on your own because you have sincere faith now Notice he says in verse 12 work out your own salvation With fear and trembling. I want you to notice that he didn't say work for That's an important difference. He didn't say work for your salvation with fear and trembling He said work out your own salvation. There's a difference Mormon church says we are saved by grace After that we have done all that we can That isn't grace That's works salvation Grace is unmerited favor I receive from god that which I don't deserve It isn't by works lest I would boast Grace is god doing a work on my behalf And so I don't work for my salvation because it's a gift from god Salvation is something that god has given to me freely through the shed blood of jesus christ Salvation is something that he has given to me in his mercy and his goodness and his grace And what I do is by faith. I receive it So I wasn't saved because I started going to church and I wasn't saved because I stopped drinking and doing the drugs And the things that pertain to those that kind of lifestyle I wasn't saved because I tried to become good and dried dried out from my alcoholism And I was saved by the grace of god And being saved by the grace of god means that i'm going to work out this salvation And so I work out the salvation by holding fast to it to the end When you hold fast to the end you're simply living a life that is consistent over a lifetime You work out your own salvation of fear and trembling because you are saved And so the rest of your life you lived as one who has been saved Now when he's speaking about that there's a two-fold way to look at this one Is that he's he could be speaking to the individual members of the church and say to the individual members That would be me and you individually work it out work out your own salvation Make sure that you have this attitude of fear and trembling this this humility before before god this awareness of your own weakness Depend on him and and love him and serve him now That's in an individual way, but also that works corporately it works in what used to be called body life now Unfortunately The concept of being a community Is pretty much lost on many people For many people a church is is is is not really biblically Defined church for them could be going to a certain place to receive a bible study or worship god in song And yes, we the church do that But the church is is greater than than simply Doing that the church is a community of believers And where we gather together And and together we work out our our own salvation And so he would also be saying to them when you as a church gather together you need to live out that salvation With one another because god has pulled you out called you out as a people not simply an individual It's like what what first peter 2 10 says when when the apostle says once you were not a people But now you are the people of god once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy So as a community You are to live in such a way as to bring glory to god And that way when people who don't know the lord show up when you are as a community gathered Like here right now when those who don't know the lord show up They run across people like you Where they're able to say indeed god is with these people there's something about them There's something different about them And and they may not may not even know what it is when I went to calvary chapel for the first time at the age of 20 And I've told you my story so I don't have to bore you with it I was I had been drinking and I was smoking pot I went to church And the first time and I went to church calvary chapel As I was there I I there was just something different about these people I didn't know what it was You see I sensed it, but somebody had to explain it Because I was raised Going to church Like most people in my generation. I was raised going to church See my generation most of the people I knew in my own generation Never really doubted that god wrote the bible inspired the bible. We didn't argue about that. That wasn't something we argued about We just believed he did that was just what we were taught we we received that from from our parents that That the bible's inspired by god And my generation went to church whether it was a Protestant or a Catholic or whatever we went to church It was just part of the routine Everything on sunday was closed down Because the neighborhood I grew up in Nobody would open up their store on a sunday except the jewish man who lived down the street And he had his store open and so we would go to that store there on sundays But all the other stores were closed Some of you are old enough to know that this is a history lesson for a lot of you young people Stores used to be closed And and on sunday families Actually got together We had sunday meals that weren't made by mcdonald's We had moms who actually made roast And that old that what you hear about that was true. My mom every sunday would make the sunday afternoon meal every sunday That's how I grew up and so we went to church And we would come home and and daddy never went to church dad would mow the lawn and drink a beer and watch a game or do something There weren't and we there weren't even games on sunday at that time. Those were on saturday And so he would just kind of hang around And we'd go to church. We'd come home mom would make something to eat and that was our life That was the 50s and that was the early 60s. That's how it was So when somebody told me about god when somebody said to me You know, this is what god's all about and and used the bible. I was impressed by that because I was raised believing that the bible is true I didn't grow up with these intellectual arguments We did not have teachers in my experience telling us. Oh, that's a bunch of nonsense. We didn't have that We had an environment That encouraged people to faith and goodness because the united states used to actually understand that goodness in a nation comes from his faith So it wasn't undermined You see and so we actually knew this now for me to go to church and and hear the bible opened up was revolutionary Because I was raised a catholic and they we didn't read the bible in in catholic church. We read the bulletin We didn't hear bible studies We had a time when there was the gospel that they would say this is the gospel and they would read something That was pretty much it Then you'd have what was called a homily a short preaching a little message Usually about bingo or something like that and that was about it Seriously, and then then I would leave and we did that every week So when somebody actually said This is what this means Blew my mind. So that's what that means I'd never read it before but as i'm reading it as a christian now i'm saying oh So being a christian is more than Doing my best or trying real hard or not cussing that much Being a christian is giving your heart to god And he can actually come in. Are you kidding me? The god of the universe Wants to live inside of me Blew my mind Blew my mind But when that happened and my life began to change I began to understand some of the things that i'm sharing with you now And I realized that What I need is not just a personal commitment to christ. I do need that for salvation to be real But I need a community to I need a family I need a group of people that are like me Because i've come out of the world and I was like them But now I need a group of people that will encourage me To live in the right way. That's what the church is supposed to do Sadly sometimes the church encourages other believers to live in the wrong way But what we're supposed to do is encourage each other to live in the right way And and that's working out your own salvation with fear and with trembling And once again, this is going to be demonstrated by their obedience to the things of the lord Now when he says fear and trembling that's just another way of recognizing our instability It's another way of recognizing our weakness. It's another way of saying I need god Not just once in a while. I need god all the time Obedience to christ is manifested by a mentality of weakness and dependence on him Now let me share something with you. That's not in my notes The apostle paul was in a a city called athens Acts chapter 17 talks about it. You've read it many times He is stirred within Because he sees that the entire city is given completely over to idolatry They even have in their parthenon this This Building that has different statues. They even have A a place that doesn't have a statue on it. It's just got to stand there And it says to the unknown god paul is really upset because As his spirit is stirred within him, he sees how idolatrous these people are and therefore he stands up And when given an opportunity he gives a message Men of athens. I see that you are very religious And he begins to share with them Now as he's sharing he speaks concerning jesus and the resurrection And as they're listening to him jesus and the resurrection, they think that he's speaking about two gods jesus and anastasis Anastasis in greek means resurrection And so they say who are these gods that he's bringing this jesus and anastasis this resurrection who is this And they blow him off Now what he did and you can read this very clearly in the book of acts is he began to say your own poets And started quoting the The poets that the epicurians and the stoic philosophers were so fond of We are also his offspring And he begins to quote them He says this this unknown god that you worship in ignorance. I've come to reveal to you. He's not unknown He's made himself known. His name is jesus. Well, he does that they say We don't have any we'll hear you some other time and they blow him off because intellectuals have a tendency of doing that There are a few people who listen to what he has to say, but not many After he was in athens they're in greece. He makes the trip a short trip to a city called quarenth When he goes to quarenth, I want you to see this turn with me to first carinthians chapter two I'll show it to you very quickly first carinthians chapter two He says something I find fascinating it begins at verse one first carinthians chapter two beginning at verse one and speaking to the carinthians You see what happens and as you're opening up, I'll give you a couple more things God says to him I want you to go To carinth. I have in the king james. I have much people there Now wait a minute Nobody's been there yet Nobody's been there yet And yet god is saying I have many people there What are you talking about? well God had made a determination to save people in carinth But somebody has to go to preach the gospel When paul went to carinth It was wholly given over to idolatry. It was filled with pagan practices that were filthy It was given over to so many evils But he didn't go and organize a march He didn't organize a protest or a rally When he walked in he did something else. I want you to see it chapter two verse one It says I brethren when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of god I determined not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified I was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom But in demonstration of the spirit and of power That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of god And I want you to see what his attitude was like again verse three. I was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling So what is he telling the philippians here back in the book of philippians chapter two work out your own salvation with what fear and trembling Because the power of god to save Comes through the word of god It comes through a dependence on god It comes through a proclamation of the message of god. That's how people are saved I think sometimes we christians Confuse Our conservatism which we derive directly from scripture But sometimes we confuse our conservatism with the christian gospel And we preach conservatism instead of the gospel And we almost replace it Because we see a society that is in such need That we want to deal with the problems for giving them the real solution See the problem in our society isn't just the things that we see The problem with society is more than pornography and more than the gay rights movement and more than so many things that we see as great opposition It's deeper than that The problem with society is the problem of the human heart And you reach the human heart through the message of the gospel It's like that mother who had that that four-year-old that was driving her crazy And mama had to get some things done so She got a picture out of a magazine of a globe She took her scissors and she cut up the world And mixed it up put it in a little box made her own little puzzle handed it to her Her son said here honey Fix up the world put it back together He's she's figuring it's going to take him a long time to do that. I mean there's so many little pieces Five minutes later. He's back in Messing around She said honey. I told you to put the world back together again. What are you doing? He said I I did I put the world back together again. She said you couldn't have done that It was all cut up in different pieces He says no I put it back together again because on the other side of the picture of that world Was a picture of a man And when I put the man back together again I was able to put the world back together again And that's how it works You put the man together again and the world gets well But when you try to put the world together again without reaching the man You're just going to have another man who's going to cause problems in that world So paul was with him in fear and trembling Because one of the reasons is because of the power of the gospel and the god he serves And also because of the opposition that he was standing in front of and he knew that god Was going to work with him because god had said do not fear them. I have much people with you and paul had been going through a lot of struggles But he also knew That the proper attitude of a believer if they're going to have any kind of success Will always come through humility and brokenness And so work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Because that's the proper attitude and god has a way of working through that kind of humble spirit Now Going on in verse 13 It is god who works in you both the will and to do for his good pleasure God is the one who has Set up if you will your path He's already determined that he has works for you to perform And so the works that are performed by you are not simply done in your own strength But the works that are done through you Really come first and foremost from him One of the if not the most difficult thing for a person to do Is to stand up in front of other people and talk How many of you agree with that I want to know raise that little hand. I see it. I see that hand It's true If I said could you come up and talk for a while? I'm going up there. Well, I go up there for I'll feel foolish. I'll feel stupid But you want to know something When god empowers you to do that you can speak before kings You can speak before crowds. You can speak before thousands when god empowers you to do it When you know, it's the lord you just give him all the glory Who is the one he speaks through it's the one who trembles at his word And when you know that without him I can do nothing You can do all things because god strengthens you to do that And so he's saying this to us. It's god who works in you both to will and to do In other words, god works on your will because prior to coming to christ You were not willing to do anything that was pleasing to him if god says it's black You would say it's white if god says it's sweet you would say it's sour If god said it's up you would say it's down if god would say it's to the north you'd say it's to the south Because we are by nature hostily opposed to him In the book of romans chapter 8 verses 6 through 8 it says the mind of sinful man is death The mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace the sinful mind is hostile to god It doesn't submit to god's law nor can it do so Those controlled by the sinful nature Cannot please god When we're controlled by our flesh we have no desire to please him We have no hunger to do that we have nothing in us that makes us want to why would i do that Why would i pray what profit is there in that why would i serve what profit is there in that Why would i tell people about god what profit is there in that to me Nothing why would i do that But when you get saved well, it's god who gives you the ability to will And then it's god who gives you the ability to do God changes the way that you think And you become receptive to do the things that please him we're transformed And we become willing to obey the lord Ephesians chapter 6 verse 6 says Obey them not only to win their favor when their eyes on you he says but like slaves of christ Do the will of god from your heart Now he speaks concerning in verse 13 his good pleasure See god has saved us And he gave us power to choose to do good And it gives him pleasure to do so I mentioned a moment ago. I actually was was Referring to Ephesians 2 10 which says we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus to do good works Which god prepared in advance for us to do See Ephesians 2 8 9 speaks about the fact that we're saved by by grace and through faith and that not of ourselves It's a gift of god and not by worse. Let's say a man should boast But we've been saved with the purpose and the purpose is To be his workmanship that word workmanship in the original language is poema. We are god's poem God has intended for us To have structure and to accomplish certain things called good works And so as believers we not only get saved But our life is demonstrating our salvation by the things that we do and the way that we live And so in verse 14 he continues and makes it practical do all things without murmuring and disputing That you may become blameless and harmless children of god without fault In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world Holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain And so these are the things that we do we do things notice in verse 14 All things without murmuring and disputing So in working out salvation Love and pure service is evident In in a world where there is a lot of moral corruption Believers actually stand out By the quality of their life They look at you and they even wonder why you don't do the things that they do All of you have friends who wonder why you don't do the things you used to do What happened to you you used to be fun? We used to have a great time you and I What happened to you? I saw an old friend. I hadn't seen this friend in Over 40 years It's a long time when you think about it. I could have said a long time, but now I just 40 years over 40 years And they had heard Because we have mutual friends. I hadn't seen them in that long And and and I had a cup of coffee with them Kind of just sharing life and all and just letting them talk And they were sharing with me where they're from what has happened in them for all these years and and I just sat there and finally They looked at me and said What happened to you? And the way they said it was cute. It was like Okay, what happened to you? Because they remembered me at the age of 16 They knew me at the age of 17 18 19 20 They saw me when I started doing the drugs They knew me when I started doing all of the drinking they knew me When I burglarized a jewelry store when I was 18 I busted it open stole $2,000 with the rings which at that time back in 68. That was a lot of money Felony was a hundred dollar if you did something that was a hundred dollars more that was a felony I took $2,000 with the rings And when they bailed me out I went to their house I went straight to their house. That was the first place I went to that's how close we were So they knew me very well And that was one of the first things that was asked What happened to you? Okay, what happened? Because you begin through the quality of your life to shine like lights in darkness You are different You're just different and they want to know Why? Because you used to know not everybody in this this room has my background. I look out there and I see some who I I know you did And others I wonder But you know what it's like You were the first one at the bar and the last one to leave And they used to put you in the car. I I've slept in cars all over Awakened in the morning wondering How'd I get here? How many of you have done that? We all many of us have How'd I get here and why am I in this condition? And what did I do last night that I'm going to regret and Who's going to be after me now for what I did? I had more than one night like that For years that was my life And now I'm telling the truth In high school. I was a habitual liar and I was a thief. That's what I was I would steal things from pennies or you name it I would sell it and I would buy my drugs. That's how I got my drugs I didn't want to work a job. Are you kidding me? Just go steal some t-shirts Sell them for ten bucks to a friend at that time you could go out and buy a lid for ten dollars And that's what I did and I would do that kind of thing I would steal and I would support my habit. That's what I did And so for me stealing was normal And lying was normal And now I'm a pastor I have to tell the truth And I don't steal And that to me is a remarkable transformation Plus the fact that I never stood in front of anybody to talk or say anything I was the guy who was a quiet one in the group who had nothing to say I was too drunk to talk And now So that's why I have people who will say What happened to you? And that's why on your job site People who knew you before you got saved They see you've changed and you shine as a light Because you're different. So paul is saying you have a relationship with god Transform the way that you live And people see that you become blameless and harmless children of god without fault in the midst of a Broken and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world You don't murmur and you don't dispute with one another because In christ there's now a love that has produced a unity in your heart You also according to verse 15 have become blameless Your outward conduct that springs from the integrity of the heart is without fault You have become harmless children of god without fault Because you are harmless. You have a personal innocence. You have a purity of heart And even as jesus said blessed are the pure in heart. They will see god You have an innocent pure heart and in verse 16 you hold fast the word of life You hold fast to it It is something that the word of life you have embraced and you will not let go and you don't add anything to it And you don't take anything from it You hold fast the word of life But not only do you hold fast the word of life in a personal sense But you also hold it fast in the sense that it has changed your life and you give it to other people evangelism Is an important aspect of your walk with god Sharing with people about this hope that lies within you is an extremely important thing for us to do I I was sharing And a pastor's meeting this just last week With the orange county calvary chapel pastors and did a devotion for them And pastor chuck was there and and several of the pastors from orange county were gathered together And I reminded them of what i'm about to share with you. I reminded them this I said listen Calvary chapel has always been an evangelistic ministry always Yes, we are known to be teachers of the word of god. That's what we're called to do But we have always taken the word of god and shared it with other people always have That is what has made calvary chapel ministry as powerful as it is Because what we are is a bunch of people who are are are beggars and thirsty Who found a good place to eat And fresh water to drink And we went out and started telling our friends If you are in need and if you're thirsty I can tell you where to get a good drink and when I was just saved I didn't know anything other than kind of like that woman of samaria Who when jesus encountered her and and led her to become aware that that he was messiah She went out and went to the men and she said come and hear a man Who has told me all things that I have done and then she says could this be messiah She didn't know how to lead people to christ, but she did in a sense know how to bring directly to him Now me when I got saved my whole ministry like yours was I was blind and now I see I was lost and now I am found That was it That's you know take it off for and it's done. That's it. I didn't have anything else to say But I said it I would tell people I told my mom. I told my dad told my sister told my brother I spoke to my friends Guys got to come to calvary chapel. That's the best thing I could do You guys got to come to church with me, man. You got to see what's going on there. I can't put it into words You just got to go you got to see god is doing something and I was excited about that Well, what's he doing? Ha wait? You just got to see because I didn't know how to say it I didn't know how to say it. You just got you just got to let's go So I took my sisters to calvary chapel. I take my friends lost a lot of friends But I would take them and I would tell them about Jesus I didn't know anything within three weeks of getting saved. I was starting to have bible studies at my house How stupid is that? But I was listening to bible studies because I was going to so many And I was listening and and I'd memorize what that guy said out of this passage Bring them on over and say thus saith the lord. I didn't know what I was talking about I sure hope he did because I was repeating him And that's what I did because I believed it then and I believe it now People need the word of god. I believed it then and I believe it now people need the word of god Holding fast the word of god. That's what we do We hold fast to it. We embrace it personally and we Distribute it personally we give it to other people and so paul is making it clear listen As you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This is what's going to take place You're going to have love and unity. You're not going to grumble amongst yourself murmur against one another You're going to be blameless. You're going to be harmless. You're going to be children of god You're going to hold fast the word of god And as a result of that people are going to come to greater faith in christ. They're going to know And then he says in verse 17 and 18 and I'll close And if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith I am glad and rejoice with you all For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice in me I am sold out and I'm poured out When he talks about being poured out, it's simply a symbol of complete dedication to god and service to the lord He was like a drink offering And he's poured out to god You see he had made a decision even as jesus had said no man can serve two masters Either you're going to hate one and love the other or you're going to be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve god and earthly riches There's only one kingdom that you should pursue you have to make a choice jesus was real black and white about that Either you're for me Or you're against me Either you gather with me Or you scatter abroad It's either in relationship with me Or you have no relationship with me Well, paul said for me I'm a drink offering. I am poured out for him I have a complete sense of dedication to god And i'm being used by god as I serve him That's a great way to conclude this is to ask I will ask god Help me to be that way I want to be sold out and may we as a group May we all want to be sold out to jesus christ