“Working out your Salvation”
(Philippians 2:12-13)
Dr. Richard S. Koole
Chapel Pointe
August 10, 2008
I. Introduction
A. The Olympics
1. The world’s finest athletes
2. Years of working out
3. The importance of “working out”
B. Our key instruction for today…Phil. 2:12
“Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,”
C. What it means to “work out” your salvation?
1. How similar is it to a physical workout?
2. …and how does it apply to you?
D. Follows one of the greatest sections of “Theology”
1. When God became one of us….The Incarnation (v. 5-8)
2. The Exaltation of Jesus…His return to glory as Lord (v. 9-11)
III. Text…Phil. 2:12-13
A. Another “therefore”……v.12
(12 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,
1. This is not talking about getting saved
a. These are already saved people
2. Now—“continue to obey God”
a. Don’t stop just because the preacher isn’t there
b. A continual process of maturing
c. It’ll be work
d. Do it with “fear and trembling”
1. Why? (later)
3. Paul uses a lot of athletic terms
a. Especially from running
1. “Pressing toward the finish line”
2. Receiving your medals
b. Comparing a spiritual workout with a physical workout
c. The comparisons are striking
B. And both begin with a personal commitment
Physical
a. Guys who dog it when the coach is not looking
a. Sonny at Ultra Body
b. Only you can make it happen
c. “You’re only cheating yourself”
Spiritual
(12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—
a. They had obeyed while Paul was with them
1. Now while he was away—
2. Keep it up in my absence
a. That’s the true test
b. When you think no one else is watching
1. Now the true test!
2. Would you be embarrassed to run into me?
a. How about God?
c. Testimony of people trying to quit smoking
1. Unless they want it to happen….it won’t
d. I can’t force you to grow as a believer
1. It begins with a personal commitment
C. Successful workouts require a lot of hard work
(12) “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, “
Physical
(introduce Cathy Powell)
a. Her credentials
1. Track and basketball for Cornerstone University….NAIA
2. Basketball
a. First team All-American
b. Conference player of the year
c. Career scoring and assists leader
d. Female athlete of the year
3. Track
a. All-American in multiple events
b. National runner-up in the Heptathlon
4. Pastor’s wife
b. Cathy’s Keys to a Good Workout
1. Set attainable goals for yourself
2. Create a workout that will fit those goals
3. Develop a daily routine
4. Do a form you enjoy and fits where you are
5. Stay consistent and don’t give up
6. Continue to increase the difficulty and challenge
7. Don’t cheat or take shortcuts
8. Have a partner to push you and hold you accountable
9. Maintain a healthy diet
10. Get the appropriate amount of rest
11. Stretch and drink plenty of water
12. Don’t make excuses
Spiritual
a. What does it mean to “work out your salvation?”
1. Greek….. “to continually work to bring something to fulfillment or completion”
2. “The active pursuit of a mature and holy Christian life”
b. What does a spiritual workout include?
1. It involves worshiping with other believers
2. It involves the accountability of a small group
3. It involves using your talents to serve others
4. It involves time alone with God
a. Talking to God…and listening to God
b. Through prayer and Bible reading
c. One of the greatest challenges
D. Koole’s Keys to a Good Workout
1. Determine the importance of the workout
a. I was usually told the “what” but not the “why”
b. Why is it so important
1. Remember the “therefore”
2. What Christ did for us
c. Why are you doing it?
1. Information or transformation
2. Guilt or a relationship with God
3. Because the preacher said you need to…
4. Compelled by love
d. Will it be worth the effort?
1. The faces of the athletes receiving gold medals
2. Wait till you see your rewards
e. Even if they fail to go to the Olympics
1. Better health
2. Stronger and faster
3. More productive
f. Benefits of Spiritual workouts
1. Builds strength
2. Become more productive
3. Better prepared to resist attack
a. Enemy searches for weakness
2. Develop a plan
a. A weekly routine
1. Worship
2. Accountability group
3. Time to serve
4. Time alone with God
b. Determine “when”
1. Where and how long?
2. What will you do during that time?
c. Write out a plan
d. Be open for revisions
3. Do something you enjoy
a. I’m not a 5:00 am type of person
b. Using a good book or devotional
c. We’re all wired differently
4 Don’t give up
a. When you don’t feel like it
1. When it isn’t convenient
b. Injuries and “comebacks”
1. What Olympians have endured
c. When you fail God
1. Don’t throw in the towel
2. God still loves you
d. We all have our set backs
e. Get over it!
5. Continue to add more challenge
a. When God asks for a step of faith
1. Part of the importance of “stretching”
2. What is God asking you to do?
a. Need for children’s workers
b. Churches that get comfortable
1. My vision for Chapel Pointe
2. Unlike any other church
3. Impact on the coming generations
c. The need to experience God
1. I want to experience the “unexplainable”
2. To experience what God can do
6. Beware of shortcuts and steroids
a. Everybody wants a shortcut
1. Steroids
b. There are none…that’s why its called a work out
c. What spiritual giants have gone through
d. C.T. Studd
C.T. Studd, the great missionary pioneer, was sharing a room with a colleague on one of their journeys. The young man awoke before daybreak to discover C.T. huddled in the corner of a room, wrapped in a blanket, poring over his well-thumbed Bible in the light of a sputtering candle.
“What are you doing?” he inquired.
C.T. replied, “I couldn’t sleep because I felt had something wrong in my relationship with the Lord, and so I have been reading through the New Testament to check on His commands to me in case I have been disobedient.”
e. How important is your relationship with God?
f. How hard are you working on it?
7. Find a faithful partner
a. Do you have at least one person you can confide in?
1. To hold you accountable
2. To give you encouragement
b. Women are better at this than men
8. Maintain a healthy diet
a. The importance of:
1. Sunday worship
2. Christian music
3. Time serving others
4. Small groups
5. Special people
6. Books and CD’s
b. As opposed to:
1. A dark movie
2. Trashy television
3. Wasting time
4. People who bring you down
c. Keep the trash out of your diet
9. Get the appropriate amount of rest
a. Alone with God
b. Breaks from the daily grind
c. Alone with your family
10. Don’t make excuses
a. “Honey, we’ve all got problems”
b. All of us are busy
c. All of us have setbacks
d. All of us are sinners
11. Work out with “fear and trembling”
a. Embarrassing yourself at the Olympics
1. Out of shape
2. Pull up contest
3. What I went through at the gym
(12) “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
b. Things I fear:
1. Offending God
a. A sense of awe at who He is
2. Standing before God dirty with sin
3. Embarrassing the family name
a. John Edwards
4. Failing to accomplish what God wanted done
a. “Did you get the job done?”
5. Letting you down
6. Our enemy
12. Realize the power available to you
(13) for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
a. The emphasis is on the word “God”
1. The same God who…
a. Who created and sustains the universe
2. Yeah….That God
b. The importance of emphasis
1. The Gettysburg Address
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so noble advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
c. He is at work in you
(13) for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
d. Greek
· “en – erg – eh’ o”
e. He energizes you
1. He supplies the power
2. Emphasis—“For it is GOD who empowers you
f. That’s why Paul could proclaim—“I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me
g. Your unlimited power to do what God commands
1. You can become a champion
h. His purpose is “to will and to act according to his good purpose”
(13) for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
“to will”
1. To accomplish His will through you
2. To cause you to want to do his will
3. To help you recognize His will
“and to act”
1. To do the work
i. It brings pleasure to the Father when His kids are driven by his purpose
“to will and to act according to his good purpose”
j. Father wants to bless you…His child!
k. Talking with Tom
1. Patrick in Liberia
a. Leper colony
2. TCCS graduate
3. Dad is a pilot for Delta
4. Great turmoil and suffering in Liberia
5. Father visited the leper colony
a. “Your son reads the Bible to me”
b. “Your son is my friend”
6. Father’s pride as he shared the story with me—
l. What would it take to make your father happy?
m. How about your Heavenly Father?
1. “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”
2. Are you willing to invest the time and effort?
3. It will be worth it