Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, as we again have gathered together, we ask that You would take Your Word, that which is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And Father, that You would use it in our lives and that Your purposes would be met. We would deal with the things that need to be dealt with, Father, and that in these evil days and these evil times, that we would appear as lights in the darkness. So, Father, work in us what is pleasing in Your sight. In Jesus' name, Amen. We've been looking at the Lord Jesus Christ as the yes to all of God's promises under the major topic of understanding more about the Lord Jesus Christ and the centrality of who He is and how God is working all things through the Lord Jesus Christ to bring about His perfect plan. So of late, we've been looking at the fact that Jesus Christ alone unlocks, makes available to us the power of God. And I thought as I was going over this this week that hadn't really laid out a good picture of why we need the power of God. There's so much thinking in the world today that anything you want to set out to do, you can do. And there's no doubt about the fact that the way God has made us, we can set goals in many areas of life, and the unbeliever can set goals, and if God allows, he can accomplish those goals. You can decide to get in shape, or lose weight, or give up this, or give up that, and to some degree, certainly we can be successful. But when you come to the things of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the requirements that have been set by our God are so awesomely high that there's no way we can touch them at all in our own strength or in our own power. And so let's go over to Philippians chapter 2. And here we have two sides of this issue. And sometimes we get confused by the two sides. There is the aspect that you and I are to be for the work of God in our lives. And we are to be pressing ahead in all that He wants to do in and through us. I noticed today that there's a There's a there's a thinking that maybe this is unfair, but there's a thinking that being a Christian is just kind of time and grade stuff. You know, it's like you joined the union and as long as you I've been there three years, I must be doing good, you know, and now I'm there five years and there's all kinds of benefits that come to me just by I've been a Christian. And yet the Word talks about this whole aspect of growing in grace. Let us move on to maturity. If you're a believer, are you in this or not? Are you doing this or not? Are you pursuing the Word of God? Are you becoming wise through the Word of God? Is this an issue to you? Or is this a Sunday morning thing? Well, I do my Christianity once a week. early. And then I'm done. Until next Sunday. Versus, is this your life? Is this my life? Is this what we're about? Well, here we are in Philippians chapter 2, verse 12, a very well-known passage. Paul says this to the Philippians, and therefore to us, So then, my beloved, Just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence. Now notice what he says. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now he's going to explain that in the next verse. Don't go there yet. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now, we all understand that we're saved by grace, totally by grace, through faith in Christ. And so, this is not talking about work for your salvation. This is talking about the results of being saved. You are to continue on. Okay? As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. In other words, you start it out. I always like to think of the, you know, you take that first step. That's walking. Okay? But we're never satisfied with a baby who takes one step. We expect they're going to take a lot more, and they're going to learn how to run, and they're going to learn how to do all kinds of things. And we're going to go watch them in track. Because they have gone beyond that first step. First step is faith in Christ. That's wonderful. And the way God uses that for our eternal salvation is just off the scale. that's only the first step. We're to walk by faith and throughout life we're to believe Him and trust Him and grow in grace as the Word of God calls us to do. And so it says we have a responsibility to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Therefore, we need the power of God to do that. How can we, and I'm going to go to some other verses here, how can we even begin to accomplish these things in our own strength. We don't even want to. Do you know what I mean? It amazes me how day by day it's a battle. Day by day. Flip over to Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. Another great verse. Verses 1 and 2. Paul says this, I urge you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. This is one of the verses that makes me shy away from that worship is just music. Music means nothing unless you are submitting, subjecting yourself to the things of God. In other words, music can't carry you. Don't get me wrong. I love music, and I love Christian music, and I love singing hymns to myself. Maybe not be pretty, but I love doing it. What is it? Scripture says, making melody in your heart to the Lord. Doesn't matter how it sounds. It's in your heart. It's what your heart's singing about. OK. So this verse says, I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies You present your body, this is written, to believers, a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. You think of that word sacrifice, Old Testament, your view and your mind, animal after animal going up, being slaughtered. It's a giving of yourself. It's just saying, Lord, I'm yours. You take me, use me, however you want. Okay. And I believe that each one of us as believers should do that. Absolutely. Paul says so here. I urge you. God saved you. Give yourself to Him wholly. I want you to take me and use me. But, if you have done that, you also recognize that It takes tomorrow's decision, and this afternoon's decision, and Wednesday's decision, and the rest of your life's decision, to follow through on that. You know what I mean? It's just like marriage. You know, you make a commitment, but, and you know, when I'm talking to people, I say, you said, I had you say, and you said, that you would do this. But, That's the big over-wrapping of the package. But it takes day-by-day, moment-by-moment decisions that keep going back to that main decision that says, this is what I did, and now this is what I've got to do to make that true. Because at any time, I can, unfortunately, nullify the effect of what I said. no longer be a living sacrifice. If I choose to... So, my whole point is, so this is an ongoing day-by-day thing. I'm sure, reasonably sure, that you will face things that are issues concerning this today and tomorrow. And each time it's going to come down to, you know, it comes down to Whittles, who are you living for? A lot of times I have to say, right now I'm living for me. That's wrong. And I'm supposed to be living for Jesus Christ, and that's what this is about. And this is what I committed to, so I have to get back, you know, get things focused. And yes, I said that. Yes, I meant that. Okay. Then it goes on and it says this, verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world. In other words, do not think the way the world thinks. Do not be held under the sway of the world's principles, the world's way of facing things and so forth, because it's an evil, anti-God system. And do not be conformed to this world. And this is it. But be transformed, which says, if I need to be transformed, then I already am, to some degree, conformed to this world. Or else I wouldn't have to be transformed. It would say, continue on this wonderful path. You're doing great. It doesn't say that. Be transformed. And as you study the Word of God, you keep finding areas where you haven't been transformed yet. You know, you find things that it says you are to live like this as a believer. And I look and I say, that's not me. You know, one of the verses says, bothers me, is talking about those who glory in their shame. And you think about certain things, attitudes that you've had, that you built up your whole life, you worked on them. And I mean, it's your pride and joy that you do this, this way. And you come to the Word of God, and the Word of God says the whole thing's wrong. It stinks. It's wrong. It's anti-God. It's anti-God's word. You're not supposed to be that way. And yet, you look at it and you say, that's me. That's what I do. That's how I do it. That distinguishes who I am. And then the word says, throw it out. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Mind needs to be renewed. that you may prove in your own life, you may prove what the will of God is. And then this great description of God's will. This is truly what it is, whether you know it or not. Lots of people think God's will is a scary thing. I just don't know what he'll do with me if I just tell him he can do whatever he wants. Who knows what he'll do? He'll probably send me to Africa. I don't know what he'll do. But here's what it says about God's will. You can count on it. God's will, first of all, is good. And your will, by the way, is not. It's not. And whenever I say your will, I'm talking about my will. It's not. We're in the same boat. Secondly, and acceptable. Thirdly, and perfect. Complete. It's just the whole package is what In other words, what God has for you is the best. Alright, now back to Philippians, chapter 2. Just think, having just come off of that Romans passage, just think how much power you need from God to even get your mind renewed. Just the day by day, looking at His Word, this ongoing dialogue, battle with a guy in a different part of the country. about studying God's Word. I'm convinced he's a believer, but he just won't do it. How are you going to have your mind renewed? How are you going to think correctly? You know, I have trouble reading. I understand that. I do. But I know he reads. It's a pilot. You know, you've got to read something to be a pilot. So I go into my, if you read the cereal box, read the Bible. If you read a bar of soap, read the Bible. If you read a stop sign, read the Bible. In other words, if you read at all. I don't care if it takes you a day to get a verse under your belt. You could do it. I'd like you to read the whole Bible, but I'm not telling you. Just get into it. Feast on it. All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for those wonderful categories. All right, so Philippians 2. Verse 1, our part. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation. Continue on in that salvation and the outworking of it with fear and trembling. In this age of grace, it says that. Why? Well, for it is God who is at work in you. If you're truly a believer in Jesus Christ, God is at work in you. Now, that to me, we could spend a year on that. God is at work in you. I used to think, well, He's just pushing certain buttons. It's all just kind of a pleasant thing. You just kind of move along and God does His work. And now I don't have a problem with God's doing His work. But I've come to really believe that I am so arrogant, stubborn, pigheaded, difficult, I could use a lot of words, that his work in me has to be fierce. Because it's the only thing that I don't listen to less than fierce. You know what I mean by that? So it's like, put the rod on me, you better really put it on me. You know, in other words, I'm talking about when I'm a kid, you better really Give me a licking, because anything less than that, I'm going to say I can handle that. And I think about God who is at work in you. Both to will and to do of his good project. Both to what? Let's read it. For his God who is at work in you. Both to will. What's that mean? To want to do what he wants you to do. To want it. To say, what He wants is what I want. How in the world do we ever get to that place? And I say, through God's work. You know, look at Abraham and all the difficulties that he had. He was a great man of faith, but all the difficulties that he had and how God's work in him When he said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, to a place I will show you and sacrifice him. Offer him up as a burnt offering. I just love that passage. Because he splits the wood for the fire. He's up early the next morning. And he's heading out. And I think, if you look at Abraham early in his life, he's not going to be there. I'm absolutely convinced He's going to be sacrificed. I can't do that. But at this point in His life, God has so worked in His life. And part of that working is the sadness and the disappointment with our own choices. Do you know what I mean? Do you know how often God has let us just do what we want to do? I mean, do you ever notice how one of the scariest things that you possess is that will? You can choose to do all kinds of stupid, foolish, dangerous, traumatic things. And oftentimes, God lets us do those things. I mean, how often in your life? Now, I know that all of us can look back and say, God stopped me in my tracks. And I say, praise the Lord for that. OK. But how many other times has He allowed us to go and do what we knew was wrong? And then it came back and it bit us. And it bit us way more than we thought it would. And we started to learn. You know, instead of the Jews, you know, you look at the Old Testament. Their idolatry was so rampant and so they followed it and followed it and followed it. And then they went into captivity, two different, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. And it said, I don't have proof of this, it said that they had great trouble entering into idolatry after the captivity, as far as like doing what they were doing before. Because the lesson was so huge and so overwhelming. Just like us, I believe they said, I'm not going to do that anymore. And your list of, I'm not going to do that anymore, was probably hard fought to get there. You know what I mean? If you had some favorite thing that you did that you knew was wrong, Scripture said it was. The lesson to get you to the place where you say, I'm just not interested in that anymore. I'm not pursuing it. It's too painful. That, to me, is the very essence of it is God who is at work in you. If we go over to Hebrews chapter 12, where we come into this great section of scripture about discipline. And for a long time, I really misunderstood this concept of discipline. To me, discipline was you've done wrong. And so you're out in the woodshed, you get your licking and you get very clearly reprimanded and so forth, reproved, corrected, and okay. But then it came to find out that the word discipline, it's bigger than that. It includes that, no doubt about it, includes that whole area of that God does take us to the woodshed. But it's also the whole area of training. You know how when you're raising children, discipline really is a training thing. And it's not just in the woodshed that it goes on. It goes on through the events and circumstances of everyday life, day in and day out. Just like when you're, if you're doing a credible job as a parent, you're constantly training. You're not always thanking them, but you're constantly training. Whoa, wait a minute. That wasn't the best attitude right there. Let's look at what's wrong about it. Let's look at what would be the correct thing to do and so forth. It's constant training. At the same time, it's a wonderful but it's a very wearying thing. Dealing with kids. Just like it was wearying dealing with us. And God is faithful to be constantly training us through his work in us. OK, so says this. I really don't see anything in my life that isn't there for training, if you know what I mean. All the events, all the things that happen, I see them as God said, OK, you need this. All right. OK. Verse 5. Hebrews 12. It says this, And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. First thing, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. See, that's the attitude I was just talking about. Oh, you know, the Lord desires to train us with, how would I say it? I believe the least amount of discipline necessary. But He has more, you know, just like any good parent. You know, I don't want to unload on my child the fiercest discipline I come up with. I want to start at a certain level where I'm hopeful that they'll say, oh, OK. I won't do that anymore. So it says, because of that, do not regard lightly. Because you could say, well, like I've been quoting here, you know, oh, I can handle that. So the first area is do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Be really in tune with the Lord's trying to tell me something. And this is the first levels of his trying to get my attention in his training me. Am I going to respond now or am I going to up the ante? and wait until I have to respond. Okay. Then the other one is nor faint when you are reproved by Him. This is another whole attitude that the flesh comes up with as far as discipline is concerned. And that's this attitude, oh, it's just too much. It's just too much. How could the Lord do this to me if He loves me? I'm just, I can't even do this. Kind of the quitter attitude, you know. Oh, I just... He's going to... If that's the way you're going to treat me, you know, like a kid might say those prayers. If you're just going to spank me for something like this, then I just... I don't know what to do. No, faint when you are reproved by Him. Why? For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. This is a pattern of life for the believer. His love is displayed. Have you ever thought this through? You go back to the book of Proverbs, it's full of this concept of if you love your child, you will discipline them. You will train them and you will use the rod and you will discipline them. And it even says, if you don't train them, then you hate them. Now, the Word of God isn't saying that your innermost thinking is, I hate my kid. It's saying the outworking of not training your children is that you are, and here's also our Heavenly Father, look at it from this standpoint, if He doesn't train us and discipline us, and we actually are allowed to have free reign and sin and get away with it and be blessed, then what are we going to do? We're going to sin more and more, and the flesh is going to grab a hold of that. And the consequences in our own lives and in the lives of others are going to be absolutely overwhelming. The verse that so speaks to me is there in Proverbs where it talks about training the child, disciplining the child, and do not desire his death. What is that? Because here's the thing, the flesh, the old sin nature, left unchecked and allowed to do whatever it wants to do, will move a person into things that will take his life. Have you noticed how often famous people, the world looks and says they've got everything. Basically, they have fame, some power, and money. How many of them live to be really old? Have you ever looked at that? The list of names, you know, you get Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson and it goes on and on. There's a whole list. You could fill a page with these people because if you go your own way, it will destroy you. One of the reasons that God hates sin is it is destructive. There's nothing more destructive on the whole earth than our own sinfulness. It's absolutely a devastating thing. One of the things that just Makes me so nervous about young people starting to feel like they're prying out their wings because they have a will and they can get into trouble that is so overwhelming that it will put a dark stamp on the rest of their life because they chose wrong. And they'll live with those consequences. I'm not saying that God isn't gracious to save them and so forth. And he may bless them richly as they turn back to him and so forth. But there's that stamp that you've got to live with the consequences of and deal with it. And many, many people are dealing with that. OK, so it says this. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And then this this most serious verse or phrase, and he scourges Every son whom he receives now remember what the scourging was with the cat of nine tails and the bits of Metal and bone tied into the ends of the thongs and it actually laid the person's back open. I Mean, you know talk about you a cut and so forth. It shredded a person's back not pretty not anything that any of us would ever want to endure and yet God says that I scourge, here's the word that bothers me in this verse, every. I scourge every son whom I receive. And if you meditate on that, there's a lot of things you start to see. Scripture also teaches that God never does more than he needs to do. In other words, he's never involved in overkill. So that tells me that my own sinful nature is so, in all of ours, in whatever area it is that we specialize in, the only thing that's really going to get through to us in some of these places is scourging. And I don't know if you look back in your life and you say, there's this overwhelming event. And I was never the same after that. I was never, it was just, So huge that it always will speak to me. All right. He scourges every son whom he receives. And it goes on, it says, it is for discipline that you endure. The reason we keep going on is because God is faithful to discipline us and to keep us in check. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? You think of the context of our own day and how often fathers are not disciplining. But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. In other words, you could be sitting in church and not have put your faith in Jesus Christ and not been born again. And you say, well, I never get scourged. I don't know what that's about. I never I was never got a licking and I never had anything where I knew God was speaking to me and getting my attention. And the Word says, well, you better look there that you're assuming you're a son and you're not. Verse 9, Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? In other words, if we, you know, I think most of us are, I realize there'd probably be some disagreement, but I'll just talk about myself. I'm thankful for the discipline I got. And I respect my father for doing it. And I respect him greatly. I love the fact that he didn't let me go where I wanted to go. And he made it severe enough that I learned some things through that. through that discipline. And so it says, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them, shall we not much rather? Now you have, my dad wasn't perfect. He was a sinful man. Like I'm a sinful man. Like you're a sinful person. Okay. What about when we're dealing with a heavenly father who's perfect? Who never makes any mistakes. I can remember one time my dad totally misread the situation. Got it all wrong. came after me, oh man. And it was all wrong. Yeah, my father never does that. Nor is he ever arbitrary, nor is he ever in a bad mood. You know, all these things, you ever hear your kids say, well, don't ask dad right now, because I don't think this is a good day to be asking him for any kind of favors. Never in a bad mood, always training and bringing you and me what we need. Or else, if that's not true, how could we have repeated times in everything give thanks? To me, that is a magnificent promise. If God tells me that it's my privilege and my responsibility to give thanks in everything, it goes back to the fact that every single situation is worthy of Thanksgiving. He's working in it. He's doing things that go way, way beyond those events. Verse 10, talking about those earthly fathers, for they disciplined us for a short time. Oh man, you think about, once you're on the other side of raising kids, you think, how fast? I just can't imagine. I say to people now, kids in high school, it's over. It's over. I don't mean that you should stop disciplining, but basically it's gone. You've got just this little window of opportunity and then it's over. And so scripture pays attention to that and it says, for they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them. Isn't that a great description of If you look at all of us as dads, it seemed best to them. Sometimes it wasn't that hot. Sometimes it was close. Sometimes it was good. It seemed best to them. But He disciplines us. I love this. For our good. Do you see that? Always for our good. That we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Now get this, yet to those who have been, what? Trained by it. It's training that's in view. We all need to be trained. We live in a day when we have an understanding of training in certain areas. There are certain areas where training, training, you work for somebody, training and safety. Tell me you're not getting that. You get kids together and you want to win on a team. The coach is constantly what? Training, training, training. And so in some areas in our own culture today, we've got this incredible training going on. But let me tell you something. When it comes to training kids in righteousness, and training them in the things of the Word of God, day in and day out, I think we're missing the boat. I think we're dropping the ball. We think, well, just get them to Sunday school. You show me in the Bible where it says that the Sunday school teacher is going to train your kid. It's like I say, that's just taking them out to eat once in a while that they get to do that on Sunday. But the bottom line is, Training, training, training. And He trains us for our good. What a great, great concept. Great truth. Alright. He says this, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful. How often in the middle of the discipline would we ever say, you know, this is great. I love this. We don't do that. Okay. And the Word says, all discipline for the moment, the moment that it's going on, seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. There's going to be a lot of things that are going to make us cry in our lives. And this is this, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards, after the sorrowful, after the not being joyful, To those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields what? The peaceful fruit of righteousness. That's what we want. This is talking about an experiential righteousness in our lives. We've been given a positional righteousness. And when we put our faith in Christ, God gave us the record, so to speak, of Jesus Christ. But there's people watching us on earth, and we're watching ourselves, and our kids are watching us, and all kinds of people in the community are watching us. And we are to be trained by the Lord, and by His Word, and by His discipline, so that we have the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So that when you turn that kid out, so to speak, there's a righteous component. And I'll tell you what, it doesn't happen automatically. This is what we're up against. Let me just summarize it this way. Can you train your kids by yourself? Or do you need the power of God? You yourself, can you even live the Christian life for five minutes or five hours without the power of God? Scripture says over and over again, no, you cannot. God has set the bar so high that He expects us to come to Him and say, I can't do this. I have to have your power. And that's the power that we're talking about that Jesus Christ has brought to us. And he's the only way to have that power through the Holy Spirit and so forth through the word of God. But we desperately need that power in our lives. If you have been impatient, I'm an impatient person, absolutely impatient. OK, if you've been impatient your whole life so that your constant response is one of impatience, you know what I mean? And God says that the fruit of the Spirit is patience. Well, what kind of training is it going to take to bring patience to a person like me? And what kind of power is it going to take? And again and again, I see the Lord just taking me and by His sovereign power, putting me in a situation where I've got to be patient. And sometimes I chuckle. I say, Oh, Lord, you know, I hate this. But I know what you're doing. I asked you for patience. I know you want to work patience in me. It takes the power of God to make the changes in those areas. Father, I would thank you for your word. I would thank you for not only have you given us a responsibility and the privilege of forging ahead in our Christian lives and growing in grace, but you also, as our wonderful, loving, all-knowing Heavenly Father, are at work in us. both to will and to do of Your good pleasure. Father, may we see those areas of discipline as true training from Your hand, loving training from Your hand. And may we respond to them, Father, and may we be accepting and thankful for Your work in our lives, because that's what's eternal. That's what matters, not the temporal things. So we thank You for these things. In Jesus' name, Amen.