Energy to Serve
Philippians 2:12-18
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, 13
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good
purpose.
14 Do everything
without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless
and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in
which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold outa
the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not
run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am being poured out like
a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad
and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and
rejoice with me.
If you are like me, you are beginning to chomp at the bit
to get started building. You also may be wondering where you will get the energy
to work through the summer and into the Fall. A few weeks ago I mentioned how I
hated the taste of energy drinks. One time while driving on a trip, I bought an
energy drink to wake me up. You know why, right? Because they are chock full of
our favorite drug of choice—caffeine. The first sip of the $2.50 can was my
last. It tasted like a giant can of cough syrup.!
I
did a quick search to find the caffeine content of this stuff. I have never even
heard f most of these drinks, but you might be surprised by the amount of
caffeine they contain. The most concentrated drink is called Ammo, with a
whopping 171 mg. of caffeine per ounce. (But this one apparently only comes in
one ounce containers.) This website also had a page called Death by Caffeine. I
typed in my weight and my choice of caffeine drink and it calculated how much
caffeine I would have to consume in order to kill me. I punched in a Starbucks
16 oz. coffee, which by the way has 300 mg. of caffeine, and the calculator told
me I would have to drink 30 cups at one time to achieve death by caffeine. That
comes out to almost four gallons! I think I would have a lot more problems long
before I was able to drink four gallons of coffee!
I imagine there will be some coffee consumed at the work
site this summer, and maybe even some of those cough syrup energy drinks, but I
trust that we are not depending on caffeine to build this church. I hope you
understand that everything we apply to the building can also apply to all manner
of ministry. The question before us is: where do we get the energy to serve?
Where do we get the energy to serve at church, to serve day in and day out in
the workplace, to serve our families, including the exhausting work of having
little children running to and fro? Where do we get the energy to serve?
In verse twelve, Paul instructs us to “continue to work out
your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will
and to act according to his good purpose.” Those of you who are familiar with
this passage know full well that Paul is not telling us to work toward our
salvation or work for our salvation, but rather to work out our salvation. It
has been said that there are two basic types of religions—those who do good
works in order to be saved, and those who do good works because they are saved.
The first group—those who do good works in order to be saved—represent the vast
majority of people in the world. With the exception of martyrdom, a Muslim has
no guarantee of salvation. At least Muslims have a holy God. God is holy and
they are not, so they must work to earn favor with their God. This is true for
Buddhism, Hinduism, Jews, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as a huge
percentage of those who call themselves Christians. Such religions may make the
necessity of good works an explicit doctrine or it might just be assumed, but at
the end of the day, all of them do good works in order to be saved, or at least
to attain their version of salvation.
If you have received much teaching at all in the
evangelical tradition, you know that the Bible clearly teaches that we do not do
good works in order to be saved. We do not work for our salvation,
but that doesn’t mean we understand what it means to work out our
salvation. To use the metaphor that we have been using the last several weeks—to
work out your salvation is to work and live out of an overflowing cup. It is
starting with the understanding that you have been radically saved. You were
dead in your transgressions and sins and now you are alive in Christ. Everything
you do, then, is an outworking of this truth. Working out your salvation is
working this salvation in and through every area of your life—mental, emotional,
physical, sexual, financial, spiritual, etc.
Let me paint a picture with two very different
illustrations. These days, being a millionaire is not all that big of a deal.
The super rich are all billionaires. Most billionaires are pretty good at giving
away their money. I have mentioned before that Bill Gates is busy giving away
three million dollars every single day. But with so many billions, do you think
Gates is still concerned with making money? Maybe he’s not as concerned to pay
his bills as you and I, but he hasn’t given up yet on making more money.
Billionaires need money too. Even though there isn’t such a person, let’s assume
you were a trillionaire. Now as a trillionaire, are you concerned about making
more money? Your only concern is spending and giving away your vast fortune.
You see, as Christians, we do not have to concern ourselves
with working for our treasure. It has been given to us as an unearned,
undeserving gift. It is a vast fortune that cannot be earned but only spent. To
work out our salvation is similar to spending a trillion dollar fortune. We did
not earn our salvation and we cannot add to its value—we can only spend it. You
work out your salvation by spending it on others. And this is why Paul said to
work it out with fear and trembling. If you really had a trillion dollars to
give away, at the same time that you would be filled with delight, you would
also be filled with fear and trembling. And if you were not filled with fear and
trembling, that would show that you do not understand the great responsibility
of the gift. What if I gave you a Ming vase worth ten million dollars and asked
you to walk it over to the courthouse? And to make things more interesting,
let’s assume it was the dead of winter with icy sidewalks. If you truly grasped
the value of the vase, I guarantee that you would carry it with fear and
trembling.
But our treasure is worth more than a ten million dollar
vase. Our gift far surpasses a trillion dollar inheritance. Our gift is not a
thing—not an it—our gift is a “Who”. What do you do with a gift like that? You
don’t pretend that you earned it. You take responsibility for such a gift. You
become a faithful steward of such a gift. You work out that gift with delight,
but also with fear and trembling.
Let me give you another analogy about this gift. For this
one, instead of giving you things—like a trillion dollars—I’m going to take
things away. First, if you’re the breadwinner, you lose your job. Next, if you
own a house, the bank forecloses on the loan and takes it. The next tragedy is
to wipe out all of your life savings—401K’s, IRA’s, property, state pension,
antiques—anything with any monetary value is gone—you are left with the clothes
on your back. Now it gets really bad. If you are a parent, all of your kids die.
If you are a child, you lose your parents. This story is worse than Job’s,
because the next thing that happens is you bury your spouse. Finally, like Job,
the last thing to be taken from you is your health: you are given a non-fatal,
excruciatingly painful disease. After all of that combined tragedy, what do you
have left? What you have left is still infinitely greater than the trillion
dollars I gave you before. There is a terrible, searing pain of loss—a combined
pain that will never completely dissipate, but even still, your spiritual
possession should still cause you delight. The gift should still bring about
fear and trembling within you. If God is not sufficient in your loss, then he is
not sufficient in your abundance.
To work out your salvation, then, means to apply this gift
to all the areas of your life. Every manner of service, whether or not it takes
place with the local church, is applied salvation. What does the gospel have to
say about forgiveness? What does the gospel have to say about my marriage? What
does the gospel have to say about my anger problem? What does the gospel say
about whatever issue you are facing? Notice that I framed the question this way:
“What does the gospel say about these thing,” as opposed to what does the Bible
say about them. There are certain Bibles or pamphlets that you can find which
will give you a specific Bible verse for any question or topic you might have.
This is all fine and well, for certainly every verse is as inspired as any
other, but we run the danger of treating the Bible as some kind of FAQ section,
a place where we can find a quick answer or worse, an easy fix to our problem.
So that is why I think the better question is to ask in what ways does the whole
gospel bear on our issues and problems, for that is at the heart of what ot
means to “work out our salvation.”
But the wonderful thing about this gift is that it is not a
static gift. It’s not just given to us so that we can display it on a shelf like
a trophy. The gift itself is active. In fact, Paul said that the gift works this
way: for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good
purpose. That first phrase is worthy of several sermons by itself; It is God
who is at work in you. Who is at work in me? God is at work in me. The Creator
is at work in me. How long did it take God to create the universe? It only took
him six short days. How long does it take him to work out your salvation? More
than six days! From the moment of our salvation to the last breath that we take
is the time we are given to work out our salvation. This speaks to the patience
and longsuffering of our Lord. Six days to finish the universe and as many as
eighty or more years to finish you and me.
But this gets better yet. The word work is based on
the word for “energy.” Therefore, while we are working out our salvation, God is
energizing us with his energy. Better still, notice precisely what God
energizes: it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his
good purpose. The verse could be restated this way: God is energizing
you—both your will and your actions—according to his good pleasure. God
energizes our will and he energizes our work—our actions. Why would God energize
our wills? Teens and young people—how many times have you obeyed your parents
with your teeth clenched? They asked you to do a certain task, and either the
task itself was unpleasant, or else the timing of the task was bad, because you
were busy playing video games or reading a book? The very last thing you want to
do at that very moment is to stop what you are doing and fulfill your parent’s
request. But you also know that the consequences for not obeying are not
something you want to tackle either, so you reluctantly get out of your chair
and finish the task—but you’re not too happy about it. Maybe you even hold your
tongue from complaining—but you’re not happy about it at all. No, you’re not one
bit happy. What is your problem right then? You are obeying, right? Your actions
match your parent’s request, but what’s wrong with you? Your problem is with
your will. You do the very thing that you don’t want to do. Your actions are
correct on the outside, but on the inside you are in a struggle with your will.
What if your parents had said, “Hey Suzy, could you please go to the freezer,
scoop out a big bowl of ice cream and eat it?” In that case, your will would
match your actions. You do the right thing because you want to do the right
thing.
I don’t know about you, but this is exactly the kind of
help that I need. I need help in wanting to do the right thing. I need someone
to give me the energy to not only do the right thing, but to want to do the
right thing. If your actions are right and your will is pressed into service,
you are miserable. But if you do the right thing because you want to do the
right thing, then you are filled with joy. Nothing saps your energy faster than
a forced obedience. I believe that this kind of gospel-centered service can put
a person into a type of “service zone.” In the field of athletics, most people
know what it means to be “in the zone”. I will never forget watching Michael
Jordan during a playoff games many years ago. He was not only making his usual
shots inside, but he was hitting three pointers like crazy. After yet another
successful 3-point shot, he turned to the camera, shrugged his shoulders and
smiled, as if to say, “I don’t know, I can’t explain how I am doing this. I am
just in the zone tonight.” I believe that Christ-centered service can be done
“in the zone” like this; that all of our service can be so energized—both our
wills and our actions—that in one sense, we never tire or burn out.
The end result of all of this comes at verse fifteen: so
that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a
crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
as you hold out the word of life. That is where we want to be—blame less and
pure children of God. This is one of the fruits of working out our salvation.
But there is one thing that can stop this forward progress dead in its tracks,
verse fourteen—Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may
become blameless and pure, children of God. There’s that pesky complaining
word again. In some versions the word is grumbling, which is a better word
choice in this case. Grumbling is a quiet arguing. Grumbling is what you do when
you don’t have the courage to argue with someone. Grumbling is a wimpy form of
arguing. Grumbling and arguing are both wrong, but at least you know where you
stand with someone who argues with you. Someone who grumbles behind your back
may smile at you to your face, but behind your back they’re pulling out their
knife. Grumbling poisons everything and everyone that it touches. It not only
stops the forward progress of the complainer, but it also acts like a wet, cold
blanket over everyone else. Grumbling and complaining both go back to the
strength of the will. If God energizes your will, you will be happy with your
circumstances and the grumbling will cease. So here is one of the secrets to
overcoming a grumbling spirit—ask God to energize your will. God is at work in
you.
If you are struggling with obeying, here is an OK prayer:
“God, please help me to obey. Help me to do what you want me to do.” But an even
better prayer is this: “God energize my will. Give me the power to want to do
your will, so that I can obey with joy and without complaining. God is so
gracious to us that he does not leave us in a state of forced obedience. He
really wants us to obey, but he also really wants us to want to obey. So the
next time you have to change that diaper, finish the chore mom asked you to do,
mud and tape drywall at church, or whatever the type of service, ask God to not
only energize your actions, but also t energize your will—so that you do the
right thing and you also want to do the right thing.
Rich Maurer
May 18, 2008