This Week's Work Out - I Will, Not I Want
Due to technical difficulties we only have the written notes and the live link. The link says 3/27/2022 but it is actually today's service, 4/3/2022.
https://www.facebook.com/sugarloafcf/videos/1190534271754603
Philippians 2:12–13 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 with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
We need to work out (with all reverence and humility), what God is working in
Our confidence is in God’s ability to perfect us.
Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
God doesn’t do things halfway. He’s all in, for you. He is faithful to finish what he started in you.
Repeat after me: I'm a work in progress, God's working and I'm progressing.
Don’t get discouraged by your progress
We saw that all of our hope should be fixed completely on the Grace found in Jesus.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We need to remember not to put our hope in our progress. Our hope is completely in the Grace of Jesus.
Titus 2:11–12 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
We also need to remember that grace is not simply forgiveness or unmerited favor, it’s the empowerment of God to live differently. It’s what allows you to bear his fruit in your life.
It’s not a license to sin, it’s what teaches you how not to.
It’s what teaches you how to not mess up, and also what catches you if you do.
Colossians 1:9–12 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
We are called to walk in a manner that pleases the Lord. This walk requires discipline and endurance. But it’s according to his power and not our own. Notice it’s not our walk that qualifies us as inheritors. God the Father has qualified us.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Key Points from the book of Jonah:
- God calls Jonah to preach to Nineveh
- Jonah tried to flee the presence of God
- Jonah’s bad decision endangered not only himself but also those around him.
- God was able to use Jonah’s situation to touch the lives of the men on the boat.
- Jonah’s 3 days felt like forever.
- Jonah’s deliverance came when he prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. (with thanksgiving let your requests be made known..)
- God still called Jonah to Nineveh
- Jonah wasn’t pleased his message was received. (He’d rather die than see Nineveh live?)
- Jonah’s hatred for Nineveh was greater than his love for God.
- Jonah showed more compassion for a plant than for people.
Nineveh wasn't the only one that needed to change. That's why God called Jonah to do it. Jonah had hatred in his heart towards Nineveh. He would have rather died than see God's mercy toward them. Who is your Nineveh?
Jonah 2:9–4:2 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
Luke 22:42 says, “Father if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Jesus showed us in the Garden that he wasn’t necessarily looking forward to what he was about to go through, but he didn’t let his desires overrule his obedience.
Philippians 2:5-13 NASB95 - Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 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 with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
I've thought before that if God is calling me to do something, he will place the desire in my heart to do it. I've even prayed before, "Lord take away all my desires and place your desires in my heart". That way, I'd automatically be walking in his will, simply by doing the things I want to do. Sounds noble, but now I believe I was missing the point. I shouldn't need to "want to". It's not about wanting to, it's about being willing to. During the prayer in the garden, it was obvious Jesus didn't want to go through what he was about to go through. But he prayed "Not my will, but yours be done." He humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross and did what his father asked him to do.
Humility comes from obedience to the father.
John 14:31
But I do exactly what the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Get up! Let us go on from here.
Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
