Turn your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Philippians, chapter number two. Philippians, chapter number two. And we're gonna read a few verses here as we begin this morning. Philippians, chapter number two. And we'll begin reading in verse number one. The Bible says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye may be like-minded, having the same love being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye 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 which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me. Let's begin with a word of prayer, if we could please. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you so much for allowing us to be able to meet and have church on Sunday morning. Thank you, Lord, for the liberties and the freedoms that we have. Thank you, Lord, we have the ability that you've given us to be able to read the Word of God and to learn for ourselves what it is that you have for us to learn. And that, Lord, we ask that this morning you would please help us to concentrate, help our hearts to be open, and, Lord, for us to be receptive for what you have for us And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I was reading this passage of Scripture, and when I came across this portion, particularly we're going to be looking at verse number 12 and 13. and really 14 this morning, and not unfamiliar verses. If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you've perhaps studied the book of Philippians. It's an encouraging book. Philippians, of course, is one of the prison epistles that Paul wrote while in Rome, in prison. And Philippians, of course, primarily dealing with rejoicing in the Lord, and primarily making Christ the center of your life, And as a Christian, that should be the case, when it isn't often necessarily automatically the case, but oftentimes when we accept Christ as our Savior, we ought to make Him the center of our life. And Paul here is writing to the church of Philippi, the church which he had established on his second missionary journey. If you remember some of the accounts there where Lydia, the seller of purple, was there and she was saved, and then one of the demon-possessed girls that certain men made money off of, and then Paul and Silas were imprisoned there, and the church was established, no doubt making and comprising some of those people as members, the Philippian jailer who, through the miraculous working, God allowed them to be free, and the Philippian jailer and his house were saved. And so the church here is established and Paul is writing to them from Rome, and there's no doubt a special connection that Paul has with the church of Philippi, and a sense of just tenderness and just joy. And he writes this epistle not really to correct any issues like he did in 1 Corinthians or in other epistles, but he more or less writes to them and admonishes them and commends them, but also encourages them really to continue living the Christian life and to do it the right way. And I have a way by which I've divided the chapters of Philippians. They're very helpful, I think, when I look through it oftentimes, and I probably received it from some commentary at some point. But Philippians chapter number one I have written down is the philosophy of Christian living. Philippians chapter 2 is the pattern for Christian living. And then Philippians chapter 3 is the prize for Christian living. And then chapter 4 is the power of Christian living. And Paul gives us helpful information inspired by the Holy Spirit that helps us in our Christian life. Now, I can remember as a young boy growing up in a Christian home, my uh... salvation experience and uh... really when i was really young my mother had told me after punishing me for some deed that i had performed uh... she punished me and prayed with me and she said i had told her that i was a sinner i was lost and she asked me some questions no doubt my parents were often asking me what i thought about those things about christ what he did for me and apparently i I told her that I wanted to accept Christ and she prayed with me and I accepted Christ. However, I never really remembered that. And it sort of once in a while popped into my mind, and as a young person of around the age of 11, I remember distinctly the circumstances that the Lord used to sort of draw my attention to the important fact that was I truly saved? And my father had woke up one morning and did not know I was listening to the conversation, but just talking to my mother one morning, and he said, man, I had a terrible dream. Now, I don't believe the Lord still speaks to us that way in that sort of vision, but I believe that the Lord does work through circumstances, and the Lord knew that I'd be where I was and hear what my father had to say. And so no doubt caused me to think. And he said, boy, I had a terrible dream. He said, we were all in heaven rejoicing, and Bobby was not there. That made me think. Just for just a brief moment, all the little thoughts that I had had about perhaps doubting my salvation, I said, man, maybe I ought to just make sure that this is settled right now. So in my room by myself, I remember praying and asking the Lord to come into my life and save me because of what he had done for me and accept the free gift of salvation and I remember it as clear as day and I was excited but of course I was a little embarrassed I didn't want to tell anyone and many people did not know I had already been baptized years before my dad had baptized me so in college later on I had You know, it just hit me. I mean, I haven't told people when I was saved. And so I was baptized in college, and boy, what a wonderful thing it is to know for sure, 100%, without a doubt, that you've accepted Christ as your Savior. Because you cannot live the Christian life apart from God. It cannot be done. And there are those in life that the Bible says will say, Lord, Lord, and it says you call me Lord, Lord, but I do not know you. And so it is important to know without a doubt that you have it settled, that you know what Christ has done for you, and that you've accepted Christ as your Savior. And if someone were here this morning, or if someone visits this morning in the next service, or if someone comes, or you visit someone, that ought to be the number one Compassionate thought in our heart about other people is, do they know Christ as their Savior? And Paul here is appealing to these Christians, this Church of Philippi, and wants to encourage them in being a Christian. But you know, being a Christian doesn't make things automatically better. Of course, life is better. More probably specifically, you should say that you have the chance, or not chance, but the possibility, ability to be better. We've heard wonderful series of messages pastors have been preaching on the book of Hebrews and how the Christian life is better. It is better than anything. But oftentimes, so many Christians do not get to experience it because they do not really dig into the well that God has given them to experience the Christian life. There's so much joy and fulfillment that God wants us to have, but so many Christians do not fulfill it. And I think about this as I read this passage here, and as we come to this part in chapter two, which gives us this pattern for Christian living, and I read the first few verses because really where our text is in verse 12, 13, 14, but in verse 12, you notice the first word. It is what? Wherefore, and of course, as someone once said, there's a wherefore, you find out what it's there for. And it's there because of what was before it. And the verses before it tells us, and I have this sort of divided in chapter two, if you like to kind of segment things to kind of study it better. Philippians chapter two, giving us this pattern for Christian living, talks about verses one through four, others. Fulfill ye my joy that may be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. And it mentions there, let other esteem better other than themselves. Excuse me, themselves. Others is the key. And then in verses 5 through 11, the mind of Christ is given to us. We have here Christ. The mind of Christ is given to us. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He came to this earth, it says, but made himself of no reputation. I've been told that by a few commentators that this is perhaps one of the deepest theological verses in all the Bible. And of course that's, you know, through studying scripture, there are probably several verses like this. But the very fact that God gave up what was his, and it wasn't in some form or sense of the fact that he didn't want to because he would miss what he had, or the fact he thought his throne would be taken in some way, and oh man, hold my spot for me, you know. But he did it out of love for us. And I don't think we can fully comprehend what Christ actually did for us. Where he came from to where he came. How far he went. It's more than just light years across the universe. It was a greater distance than that. He became a man without ceasing to be God. And there is a belief out there that perhaps it says he made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself. But of what did Christ empty himself? Some would say, did he empty his deity? Well, we know for a fact the Bible does not teach that. The Bible's clear he did not empty himself of his deity. He was very man and he was very God. How does that work? I'm not sure, but God can do it. And he was man and God, and what did he give up? What is the basis of his kenosis? What is that which he gave up? I believe the best thing you could say is that he gave up his prerogatives of his deity. He limited himself on purpose, knowing what he could have done. You think about the manger scene, you think about Jesus being born, there should have been the whole world there to greet the Savior who came to the earth. Everyone should have been there, not just shepherds, Mary and Joseph, but the whole neighboring town, the whole next country. The whole world should have been there to greet him as Lord and Savior, but they weren't. The Lord rendered himself for our account, for our salvation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. Man, I'm so thankful for how far the Lord went to save you and me. And we have here this mind of Christ, how he came to the earth to save you and me. And then we have in verses 12 through eight, the mind of Paul. Verses 19 through 24 gives us the mind of Timothy as it's likened to Paul. And then verses 25 through 30, the mind of Epaphroditus, who was the pastor there, probably at Philippi. And we have here really the portion of scripture where we learn about the mind of Paul. And in verse 12, it says, We believe that Philippians here is trying to teach us to make God the goal, as B.B. Warfield once said. Give God your life. Yield yourself to the Holy Spirit. Don't let anything take the place of Christ in your life. And what's so sad is oftentimes Christians will exchange what is best for their life for what is good. And truly Christ wants us to have the very best for our life. And of course we know the truth that God has a plan for each and every one of us. He has a plan for me and he has a plan for you. Then why don't so many Christians yield themselves to accept God's plan for their life? Now God can use anyone. He can use anyone in any way, but how we limit God so many times. So we have here in this passage of Scripture, I want to share with you three parts in this passage that I believe will be a help and an encouragement to us. But oftentimes in the Christian life, when we do things as a Christian, and we want to do what's right, and we want to yield to the Spirit, and we know what the Bible says, but it's hard to do, and we want to live right, be right, do right, but oftentimes we have the wrong attitude about it. We need to have the right attitude. You say, well, how can we do that, Brother McKeever? I'm glad you asked. Here in verse number 12 starts it for us. I want you to notice what God commands of us. He says to work out your own salvation. Now, work out does not mean to work for. And this is clear, if any length of time you've been a Christian, you understand very clearly the Bible does not tell us we have a works-based salvation. Christ did the work on the cross for us, and He paid the price. Amen? We are saved through our faith in Christ Jesus, the grace He bestowed upon us. A person cannot work for their salvation. The Bible says, Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephesians 2.8.9, for by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And when you witness to someone who perhaps maybe even says they know Christ as their Savior, and you begin to talk with them, you realize and understand they're really trusting in what it is that they do every day to get them to heaven, when the Bible does not teach that. And you want to get them to a place where they understand the fact is that there's nothing that they can do, but it's only what Christ has done for them that they can go to heaven. What's interesting is if you look at the root word of the meaning of work out here in scripture, you'll learn that it refers very specifically to achieve really the fullest potential or to produce maximum results. It's pretty amazing when you think of it. We have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. A good way to say it is that you have to work out what Christ has worked in you. Christ has done the work for you for salvation, but we must work out what Christ has worked in us. James 2 talks about it in our life. Show me your faith while I show you your faith by your works. And as we live the Christian life, others can't necessarily see Jesus in us unless they see our works of faith, living the life. And someone has paid the price for us to have that, so we should work it out. As a parent, a parent might want their child to learn an instrument. Has any parent in here had their child learn an instrument? Anybody? Yes. And there are other instruments, some better than others. It can be painful to have them learn. But it's good for them to learn, right? You get a good strong trumpet, and having someone practice that, it takes a little bit of encouragement to allow them to keep going. A violin, maybe not so bad, maybe not so loud. But the parent invests, and I remember thinking about instruments I perhaps wanted to try and play, and my father telling me, if you wanna learn the instrument, if I pay for it, you're gonna learn it. Because they're going to invest money and you're going to invest time, you need to work out that which has been worked in me. We're going to give you the ability, now you need to learn it. And they want to invest. And the person learning perhaps wants to do what they can because they know the person that invested, they want to get the maximum out of it. Doctors receive training. They learn how to perform surgeries. They want to save people's lives. They want to work out that which has been worked in them to learn. When my mother received her second hip replacement and the doctor, who her doctor's name is Dr. Kuka, It's a kooky name, right? Dr. Kuka. But he is a little kooky. He has a very obvious laugh. He's very loud when he talks into the pre-op room. Everybody can hear him in every shade drawn cubicle. But he was joking with her when he came in. And of course, they like to make sure they mark the right hip to make sure it's the right one. And he comes in and he says, all right, we're going to do the right hip, right? And she looks at him, she says, no. And of course he laughs. Ha ha ha, I'm just joking, you know. This is not the time to joke, Dr. Kuka. Okay, this is serious. She's about to have a hip replacement. And she laughed, of course. And that's just the way he was. But he obviously performed the surgery and did it well. She's working well, amen. And he did it right. He worked out the very thing that was worked in him. As Christians, we have been invested by God and given salvation, the greatest gift that man has ever known or could know. And what do we do with salvation? What have you done with it? What can we do? God gave me the gift of salvation so I can work it out in my life. We need to be the Christian that God wants us to be. We heard a message several months ago by Pastor Boyle, preached a message on the potential that people have, that Christians have in Christ. And there's nothing really greater to think of is the potential that we all have when we can yield ourselves to what God has for us to do. And that's really what this passage is talking about, to work out what Christ has worked in us, the potential that we have that God wants us to be, but only if we work it out. You see, you and I can't save ourselves. We can't perform that work, but we can work on the salvation that God has given us, and work it out to be developed to what Christ wants us to be. In the college, we often look at college students that come to our school, and they come as freshmen, and they leave, and they graduate. And as a staff member, you look at students, and you often wonder at times, what is this student going to become? What are they going to be? How are they going to learn? What is it they're going to experience? And is God going to work in their life? How is He going to work? What is He going to impress upon their heart and their life and speak to them about that they may do as a career or do what God wants in the ministry for their life? It's a pretty amazing thought to think about. And it's amazing to see how God develops many times that person. Sometimes a student comes to you and you think, oof, they're rough around the edges. But who isn't? and God can work in that person's life. A new Christian comes to church, and they're learning, and they're learning, and it's exciting, and you look and see how God works and uses their life, simply because they're working out what Christ has worked in them. Ephesians 2, verse 10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Philippians 1, verse 6, just a page over, being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Colossians 2, 8 through 10, You see, there's no telling what God can do in your life when it's yielded to His will. If you look at Philippians chapter number one, again, just over a moment, in verse number 21, it says, Notice the two words, is, are both italicized in my Bible, showing that it was added for emphasis or specificity. And it says, But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, I abide in the flesh as more needful for you." Paul writes here, and he makes a statement of how he is in a straight betwixt. He says, I want to go and be with God, but I also want to stay and continue working for God. What a wonderful place that is. Now, I don't believe that I've probably attained that fully in my Christian life. I hope to. I really need to. That's what a Christian ought to, because it is far better to be with Christ, is it not? Than it is. But God wants us here. We need to work. The great preacher Vernon McGee was told once he had cancer and he had his first cancer surgery. And many people wrote to him in the hospital and wrote, well, we're praying for you to get better, we're praying for you to get well. And one lady in a church, she wrote him and she says, you know, Brother McGee, he says, everyone's praying that you get better, but I'm praying that you meet the Lord. And Brother McGee said, he wrote her back and he said, well, that's wonderful. I appreciate that. I appreciate, though, if you leave that up to the Lord, because I really have a lot of things I still want to do. And that's the truth. In our flesh, we want to stay. We want to enjoy what God has given us on earth, but hopefully for the desire to want to serve Him more, not just for selfish reasons or human reasons. What has God commanded us? And, you know, I remember as a little boy thinking, you know, my dad preaching on the Lord returning, and I thought, well, Lord, if you just don't return until after my 12th birthday, you can come any time you want after that, you know. And in the minds, we think those kinds of things sometimes, but the truth is, it is far better to be with the Lord. And Paul here is conflicted. Why? Because in his Christian life, he was working out what Christ worked in him, and he had a right relationship with God. What a wonderful thing that God has given us to work out what Christ has worked in. Notice secondly, verse number 12, notice how we are to obey the command. It says, with fear and trembling. Now I want you to be very careful how, when you read this, to understand what it's talking about. To work out our salvation, obviously we learned, does not mean to work for, it means to work out. And when we work out, we should do it with fear and trembling. We understand to fear and respect the Lord and who He is, but we ought to do it with humility or a humble mind. To work out what Christ has given us humbly. To work like you know that God is watching. And God is watching you work out the very thing that He has worked in. Do we live the Christian life as if we know God is watching and circumspectfully and understanding, protecting against the wiles of the devil, but also understanding and knowing that God is seeing what we do with His great gift, the gift of salvation? When someone gives you something, as I mentioned earlier, a parent giving a child an instrument, they want to know that they've invested If it's something valuable, they want to know it's going to be used to its full potential. For Father's Day, we'd get my dad something nice, maybe a tool set, something he truly enjoyed. You want to know he's going to get the max benefit out of that tool chest. Oftentimes, you do something nice for someone, they may call and ask, and they say, how is that such and such that I bought for you? Oh, it's going well. They like to know that they didn't waste their money. They did it out of a kind gesture. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6 that we are bought with a price, and that price is the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, don't miss the meaning of this part. We ought to do it, work out the salvation that God has given us with humility, knowing that God is watching. Not fear of man, not fear of death, not fear of disaster, but simply the only way to have a better vision on things is to get a better vision of God. We ought to, in chapter two, first few verses here that talks about others, we ought to have, the Bible says, the mind of Christ, who made himself of no reputation and humbled himself and came as a servant. That's the humility that you and I ought to have. In chapter two, verses six through 11, we see here that we learn that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth. We have an inevitable meeting with God someday, and we're gonna have to give an account for what we've done with the salvation that God has given us. You know, oftentimes, though, as Christians, we don't like to think of those things. We kind of crowd it out. We get busy. But yet, we ought to often be reminded, salvation that God has given us. Does he have the ruling presence in your life? Are we using salvation that God has given us to live for him? Notice also, along with this, before I move on, notice it says in verse number 12, He's saying it's good to work out the salvation that God has given you, not just when people are watching, but also when people are not watching. Whether you're in church or whether you're at home. Whether you're in your car or whether you're walking in the mall. Whether you're walking down the street or whether you're cleaning in the house. It doesn't matter, we ought to work out the salvation that God has worked in us. And we really understand that the joy of the Christian life will come when we work out that which Christ is working in us. You think of Bible characters who could have done so much more, perhaps they did what God wanted. You think of someone like Samson, who defeated the Philistines. However, what more could he have done? Had he have just done what was right to begin with? I believe that we will use our salvation for God if we simply learn to fear Him, to be humble with what Christ has given us. I want you to notice a third thing. Notice who it is that is with us during the command. Verse 13, it says, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now I want you to notice something. It says in verse number 12, work out your own salvation. Work out. But then in verse number 14, or 13, excuse me, you have, for it is God which worketh in you. If you study those root meanings of those words, you'll learn that they're both not the same root word. And when you study this out, it's pretty exciting because you learn that this word actually is the root word for energy. You see, it is God which worketh in you. And as we have what God gives us as the energy we need to perform the work of God, we work out what Christ has worked in us. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. God gives the energy, you'll never have to worry about burning out. You say, well, Brother McKeever, I work hard, I prepare a Sunday school lesson, and sometimes I just get tired, and I'm working, and I'm doing what God wants, but I'm just, it's getting difficult, it's getting tired. Well, then the problem might be the fact of a power connection problem. Or you're plugged into the right source. You see, because the Bible here says that God will give you the energy you need if you're getting it from Him. Christ is the potential. God has created us with a desire to live for Him. See, the energy you get doesn't come from coffee, as delicious as coffee is. It doesn't come from the church. It doesn't come from family. It doesn't come from you. It doesn't come from me. It comes from God. And if you're not getting your energy from God, then you're gonna burn out, because the energy source is not infinite. We should serve God because of, not in order to. If you serve God because you have to, it won't be long before you won't. We don't serve God in our own strength and in our own might, but in God's power. One preacher once said, faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone. And the work that God gives us to do, we work out, and people see Christ in us. So for what purpose has God saved you? You say, Brother McKeever, this morning, maybe I don't have the energy like I ought to have. Well, maybe we can pray this morning and ask God to help you get the right source. Maybe give over what it is you've been trying to do all this time, but now you're going to give it to God and let Him control you. One great preacher once said that God saves you and He gives you a new want to. He gives you a desire. Now, that desire can be pushed aside. and you can start to go after things of the world, and you can be sidetracked, and you can want things that are not what God wants you to have. But when we get our mind where it should be, the mind of Christ, and we bring back that desire that God gives us, we see the joy of the Christian life, as Paul talks about here, that your joy may be full, in Philippians. Verse two, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded. See, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we must work out We must do it ourselves, no one can do it for us. You can't do it for me and I can't do it for you. When you're working out what God worketh in you, you will do what God wants you to do and enjoy what God wants you to do. You say, well I'll do it, but I don't want to do it. Well then are you doing it with the right power? Are you doing it with the right energy? If you look at verse number three of Philippians chapter two, Notice also, along with who goes with us, God gives us the energy. Notice, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look at verse 14, it says, do all things without, what? Murmurings and disputings. Oh, God has blessed them so much more than me. If God blessed me like He blessed them, then I'd do more. God did bless you with everything that person has. You have. Everything that fellow Christian, sister Christian has, you have. But what's sad is so many Christians don't tap into the gold mine like those other Christians are. They have the gold mine. God's given it to them. but they're wasting their time complaining about how they can't get what that person is. I heard one preacher say, it just basically admits, don't say that because it just basically admits that you're lazy. And it means that you're not willing to work what Christ has given you to work and to achieve what Christ wants you to achieve. To have what God wants you to have. He says, I'm the vine, ye are the branches. Without me ye can do nothing. In Philippians, it says, you can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. You know, the devil wants nothing more than to have you complain and murmur and bring up problems that distract you from what God wants you to work out. I mean, think about it. How easy is it? On Friday, I was doing some work somewhere and I came and I had a haircut appointment. And I scheduled my appointment. The relief of an appointment is when you make the appointment, you don't have to worry about standing in a long line. You just get to go in, get your haircut, get out. And I walked into that haircut and saw Lee there. He was there. And I said, hey, I'm here to get my cut. And he was very kind about it. And he kind of gave me that, you have an appointment today? I said, sure. You know, pulled out my phone, you know, starting to think, okay. I made the appointment. It was for 1230 on Friday. And he said, I don't know. And he looked at his computer. Is your name Seth? I'm like, no. He was joking with me. And I said, no, I'm pretty sure. And he says, oh, it looks like it's for Friday the 11th. I didn't even look at my phone. Apparently I just saw the next few days. It was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I just booked it for Friday. Didn't look at the date. I made a mistake. And he said, yep, so are you going to come back next Friday? I said, I sure will. I didn't really need it that bad, but I was ready to get one done. I'll see you next Friday. Walked out, you know, that was it. But how easy is it for something simple like that? I drove all the way here. You mean to tell me that I made the appointment at the wrong time? You're going to cut my hair today. Somehow the flesh just gets in. But the truth of matter is, it's just a haircut. What does it really matter? You know, Duncan made my coffee. It's too hot. There's too much sugar in it. There's not enough cream. The church auditorium is too cold. It's too hot. I don't like the way that they serve me this. It's not right. All the gratuity is included. All these things. Amazing how they can get under our skin. And they can rile us up. If we're not careful, they can damage what it is that God wants us to work out as Christians. He says, do all things without murmurings and disputings. And I guarantee you, you ask the Lord for help and you get the right energy source and you work out what God is working in you, giving you that energy, you're going to want to work for the Lord and do things for the Lord and live for the Lord and the joy of the Christian life will be manifest in the work that God has given you. You'll want to work. You see, when you wake up in the morning and come to church, it won't be, oh, I gotta go to church again in the morning. I gotta put on clothes, dress clothes, and I gotta get ready early and go to church. But no, it's I get to wake up this morning and I get to go worship the Lord because of the freedoms we have and because the freedom in Christ that we have to work out which Christ has worked in us. Don't give the devil what he wants. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We could go down the line and talk about men's lives who have given themselves to the Lord and accomplished great things. And I guarantee you if we talked about someone like Lee Roberson or other great preachers and we asked them, you know, you did everything you wanted to do for the Lord, you accomplished everything, you did it all, and they'd probably say, no, I could do more for the Lord. There's always something more they can do. And you studied the history of someone like Lee Roberson and learning about someone named Daisy Hawes, the Sunday school teacher that led him to the Lord, started him with his Christian life, gave him the gospel, and now the preacher he became and the things he accomplished, the people that were saved, people that surrendered to ministry through his ministry. You see, Daisy Hawes was just simply working out her salvation, which Christ was working in her. Even someone, as I think about my history and my dad growing up, how he was just a bus kid who was invited to church by a man named Bill White, a church planner in Maine. Invited him to church, he came to church, he got saved. He invited his two sisters, the two Mainer sisters, crazy sisters, those are my aunts, and they got saved. And they're going to church on the bus. And he believed God wanted him to be a doctor. but he knew God had called him to preach. And so he went from where he was gonna go to medical school, he went to Tennessee Temple University, and he became a preacher, a church planner. You see, that was just simply God working through Bill White, working out the salvation that God was working in him. Using the energy that God gives, not in himself. And you'll be amazed at the things you can accomplish and do, not because it's you, but because it's just you yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit. You think, man, there's things I want to accomplish and there's things I want to do, but are they things that God wants you to do? And if they are, if you have the right energy source, you can do it. It's not impossible. When God saves us, he gave us all the riches that Christ wants us to have. You have the same Holy Spirit that I have. But we can't enjoy them unless we work them out. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you to both will and to do of His good pleasure. I hope that that's our heart desire this morning. And if there's something perhaps maybe this morning that's holding you back, something that's causing you to say, you know, I've got to give this up, this has to go. I pray that that will not hold you back any longer and you will work out what Christ is working in you. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you.