Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 3, 2016 | Timm Collins - Finished Business

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April 3, 2016 | Timm Collins - Finished Business · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Topeka Bible Church.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, welcome to worship.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are you glad to be here?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, amen.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever had an unfinished project around your house?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's confession time.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, everybody stand up who didn't.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm kidding.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to do that.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We all have at some point.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've had unfinished projects.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, there's actually an unfinished project right in the middle of Orlando.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: For those people who live in Florida know about this.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just off of Interstate 4, just off the side of Interstate 4.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Floridians know it as the I-4 eyesore.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: This building was started somewhere around maybe 2000, 2001.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It took them about 10 years to put all the glass on on the outside of it.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can see by looking at the picture there, those bottom three or four floors, you can see all the way through it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not how buildings are supposed to work, is it?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is that unfinished.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's still that much work to be done.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are, probably 15 years after they started it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And every time we drove by it, and it's gargantuan, you can see in reference to a car there, uh, how big this thing is.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so every time we drive by it, you kind of laugh and you kind of think, what in the world were these people thinking?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And yet you and I could probably tell a similar story, maybe not quite that big, uh, but you and I could probably tell a similar story around our house, couldn't we?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: There are some projects that we started that maybe we should finish that we didn't finish.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: We had grand plans, we had grand schemes, we had big ideas, uh and for whatever reason it just didn't happen.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: The first house that my wife and I bought uh together after we got married, um, our next door neighbor, who I think was a pretty nice guy, but for some reason he decided to change the color of his house.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: He decided to paint the outside of his house and totally changed to a very different contrasting color.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he painted about half of his house and then he just quit.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I never could figure out why he did that, but I started to see it as a pattern because we also noticed later that he would also mow part of his yard and quit.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess that was kind of his philosophy.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we could probably kind of all tell stories like that.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are a couple different responses.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sometimes the response is, you know, who cares?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter, that doesn't bother me, or you know, no big deal.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: That was obviously my neighbor's response.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's the response of whoever's in charge of building this building in Orlando.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um but then, you know, the other side of that, which is probably where most of us land, is that it does bother us.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: When you see, you know, there was a part of me when I saw my neighbor's half-painted house.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I hate painting, but I really wanted to just go and finish it for him.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just so I didn't have to look at it anymore, right?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I could tell stories like that.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And even if you're the one that's responsible, if it's your fault that the project's not finished, it may still bother you.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You may still feel guilty for it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and on some level, what's happening here is our response is based on uh how important the project is.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, obviously changing the color of your house, painting the outside of your house, that's kind of a big deal.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh my wife has in the past, she's had you know a picture that she wanted hung or something like that.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it takes me, you know, a couple, three months or you know, years or whatever.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's not painting the house.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the size of the project really makes a difference on kind of how you respond to this.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is where things get interesting.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: What if the project that was unfinished uh was not uh painting your house or mowing your lawn or hanging a picture inside or maybe fixing your car or you know, changing your oil or something like that?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: What if the unfinished project was you?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: What if the unfinished project was you and your spiritual development and your growth in faith?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or whether or not you're even gonna have faith, and what's that faith gonna look like?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And who's that faith gonna be in?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: See, when you ratchet it up, you kind of change the stakes, you kind of change the way we view the unfinished project.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus knew that unfinished projects are a no-no.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: He said this in Luke 14, you'll remember this.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and do what?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Count the cost.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have a plan.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: You need to know exactly what's involved.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Whether he has enough to complete it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's it is kind of funny.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you paint half your house, there's a good chance your neighbors are gonna laugh at you.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it works.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: But what if the stakes are higher?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what if the unfinished project is you?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what if your spiritual development actually is really important?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're anything like me, our response is to know that there's something really big at stake.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for over two decades of being a Christ follower, I've put a lot of pressure on myself because I know there's a lot at stake.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a very important part of who I am.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very important part that's gonna live forever.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is me, this is my identity.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I need to really get things right, and I really need to know that I'm making progress spiritually, and yet sometimes I don't always know how to define that in the best way.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or, see if you've done this, I'm guilty of this.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I know that I'm making progress, but I just feel like I'm not making progress fast enough.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever prayed a prayer like this?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever prayed a prayer that went something like this?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: God, what's the hold up?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: God, can we move a little faster?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I sound like a three-year-old.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Are we there yet?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: God, you know, can we make a little more progress?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can we go faster?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can we get there sooner?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I feel that way, and maybe for you, the reason you feel this way, and I could maybe make the argument that it's the reason you're in church this morning, is that we care.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: We care about our spiritual development.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're concerned about whether or not we're making progress spiritually.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're concerned about interacting with the God of the universe, or at the very least, we're curious about it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning uh we're gonna dive into this really big idea, and it's that God's greatest desire is for your fullest development.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: God's greatest desire is for your and my fullest development.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be in the book of Philippians if you want to turn there in your Bible.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, the verses are gonna be on the screen in front of you.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Philippians chapter 1.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read the first few verses and kind of step our way through these.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Philippians is a fascinating book, very fascinating book, uh, written by Paul, as many of you know.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh most likely it was written in the early 60s.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Paul had established the church in Philippi probably about a decade before that.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So he knew this church well.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: He had known them for a while.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Philippians was written from prison.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was in prison.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't in prison because he had broken any laws, he was in prison because of what he believed.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he was in prison specifically because what he believed upset some people.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: There were some religious people who didn't like some of the things that he was teaching, and so they pulled some strings and he wound up in trouble.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So here he was in prison, and he, this is fascinating, and this is going to really play into what we talked to or talk about today.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: The occasion of writing for the book of Philippians is maybe the most fascinating part of it all.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the church at Philippi were so in love with what Paul was doing and his efforts to share the gospel with those around him and really travel around that region sharing the gospel, that even though he was in prison, they decided they wanted to support him.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they took up an offering.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: They took up a collection, and because they didn't have Western Union, right, they couldn't just wire the money or, you know, on your phone, you can just send people money now.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: They couldn't do that.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So they made this collection and they give it to it, gave it to a guy from their church named Epaphroditus, and they asked him to thank you, Hank.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they uh asked him to take this and go visit Paul in prison and take this uh collection.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Epaphroditus does this.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Paul receives it, and he's so thankful for this gift that they've given him that he sits down and he writes a letter.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that letter is the book of Philippians.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's my favorite book uh in the New Testament, and actually the verse that we're gonna read is one of my favorite verses in the New Testament.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like picking a favorite kid, right?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to do, but I really, really love these verses and the verse that we're really gonna drive toward today because Paul had a purpose when he wrote this.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when he wrote these words, he was heading somewhere verbally.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so you and I are gonna kind of jump on that train and follow him down that track and find out where it was that he was headed.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, Philippians chapter 1, verse 1, says Paul and Timothy.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's the next word?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Say it louder.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Servants.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's an important word.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna come back to it, but I need you to remember that word.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and the deacons.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then this next sentence is a sentence that you find as a theme in several of the epistles that Paul wrote, but it's still a fascinating statement.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he says: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the reasons I love to just step through Scripture because you find all these little nuggets, all these little jewels.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Listen.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Listen.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever think about the fact that you don't have peace unless you have grace?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: That grace needs to be present first.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of the problems that I have is expectations of the people around me.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Expectations that there are people around me, and I know that uh they're not gonna perform the way that they should, but I expect them to anyway.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna offer grace.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty of this.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe many of you are guilty of this, that we're not gonna offer grace to the people around us, and yet we want to have peace.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not how it works.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 3, this is where things get really interesting.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: See, as we discover this principle that God's greatest desire is for our fullest development, it's really gonna, the principle stands on two legs.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the first leg that it stands on is how well Paul knew the church at Philippi and how much he loved them, how appreciative he was of them.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first leg, and then we're gonna kind of find out why.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: What was the reason behind why I was so thankful?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you can see that he was thankful.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, every single time you come to mind, I'm thankful.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can't think of you without being thankful.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful for you that I didn't start this letter the way that I start many of my letters.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you read the epistles of Paul, especially those first one or two verses, often what you find is Paul appealing to his role as an apostle.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's appealing to his own authority as an apostle.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it says Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But this one didn't say that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the word that I asked you to bring with you?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: What was it?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say Paul an apostle, he said Paul a servant.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't need to appeal to authority with the Philippian church.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: They were close to him, and he was close to them.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he was so thankful for them that every time he thought of them, he broke out in spontaneous thankfulness to God that he had a chance to interact with them.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, time out.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have people like that in your life?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have people in your life that bring out the best in you so much and that drive you to God so much that just being around them or just the thought of them makes you break out in spontaneous thankfulness to God for who they are and for who they are to you?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aren't those the kind of people that we should have in our life?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And unless you think that's a throwaway question or that's an unimportant question, let's shift gears and ask the question from the total opposite direction.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have people in your life that whenever you think about them, instead of breaking out in thankfulness and appreciation to God, you just roll your eyes and go, oh my goodness, there they are again, right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: We can't admit that in church.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: But it's true.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to be around the right kind of people.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul knew that these people were the right kind of people.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were God people.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because they shared a passion that Paul shared.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Here, he keeps going.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 3 says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, always in every prayer of mine for you all, in every prayer that I pray for you, making my prayer with joy.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's so encouraged by them.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I listen to the words he uses.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: All, always, every, all, all the time.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: All of you.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody gets left out.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he's setting the stage for something that he's about to say.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is a very, very important thing that he's about to say, but he's giving us a precursor, and the precursor is I am so thankful for you.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was thankful for you before you sent me an offering or a financial gift.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful because of who you are and because of what I've seen in you over the past decade.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But why was he thankful?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: What was he thankful about?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have to keep reading his words.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go back to verse 3 and pick it up.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then verse 5 tells us why he was so thankful for them.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just that they were God people, it's that they were gospel people.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul had given his life to the message of the gospel.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: The good news that you and I aren't good enough, so the best thing we can do is quit trying to be good enough.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we can trust in the fact that the one who is good enough made it possible for us to have a relationship with him in spite of our sin.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: What an incredible message.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul had devoted his life to sharing that message with everybody that he could come in contact with.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they obeyed because of it.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is one of the things I want you to pick up and take with you today.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: That you and I, God calls us to respond in obedience to Him.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't respond in obedience because we feel guilty.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: We don't respond in obedience because we feel like we have some kind of duty.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: We don't respond in obedience because we want to prove how disciplined we are.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: We respond in obedience because of all that God's done for us.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: We respond in obedience that's born out of love.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: We respond in obedience that leads us to say, because you're a good God, I'm gonna do what you're calling me to do.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take the steps that you're calling me to take.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were gospel people, and that paved the way for this big idea, which is maybe one of the most comforting ideas in all of Scripture.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the the verse we've been driving to this whole time.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's Philippians 1, 6.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were gospel people, because they were participators in the gospel.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says this in verse 6.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure of this.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, he meant I've been persuaded of this.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because of what I've seen in you, listen, I'm not putting my faith in you.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm putting my faith in the God whose work I see in you.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: My faith's in God and in what God's doing inside of you.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I am persuaded, I am sure of this.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Read it with me.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: That he who began a good work in you might bring it to completion.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't right.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what it says, is it?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that he might.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say if you and I do all the right things that everything's gonna work out right.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that you and I started this faith journey in believing in the gospel.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is that it's up to God, it's not up to us, but somewhere along the way we shift gears and start believing it's all up to us.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, God, you started the work, I'll take it from here.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's a recipe for disaster.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's a recipe for pressure that God never intended you to bear.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: How fascinating is this.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: He who began a good work in you will, he will, he will bring it to completion.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, your spiritual development isn't dependent on your circumstances, it isn't dependent on the people around you, it isn't even dependent on you, it's dependent on the God of the universe who, if you're in fellowship with the gospel, he started a work in you when you gave your life to follow him.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And because he started that work, that work is his.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter how your enemies feel about it, and it doesn't matter how Satan feels about it, because God didn't ask for their opinion.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: He decided before the foundation of the world that he was gonna do something big inside of you, sometimes in spite of you.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Can I get a witness?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I feel.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: God, maybe spiritual growth is about me just staying out of the way, responding in obedience.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I have a role, yes, I have a responsibility.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: But man, oh man, this is not my work.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is you interacting and intersecting with the God of the universe.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he who began a good work in you will complete it, he will perfect it, he will perform it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because his greatest desire is for your fullest development.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God is after.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the business that he's in.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear the optimism in Paul's words?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you the letter that I would write if I was in prison, it would be pretty sad.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: It would be something like this.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes really bad things happen to you, and you just got a soldier on for Jesus, right?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Does this sound familiar?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, maybe sometimes God can bring some good out of bad.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what does Paul say?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: In spite of my circumstances, I've got confidence.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've been persuaded because of what I've seen.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about what God's up to.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to share with you real quick three realizations that come out of this that I want you to kind of carry with you.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is that you and I need to realize that destiny drives duty.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Destiny drives duty.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, stay with me, I'm gonna explain it to you.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're not driven by our duty to God.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's the way we think.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the way I think.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the way I think.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, God's asking for things from me.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: God wants some things from me.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: He wants me to do this and he wants me to do that, and he wants me to stop that, and he wants me to give that up, and he wants me to leave this and he wants me to go there.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: God's always asking for things from me.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's duty.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: But you skipped over the most important part.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because the most important part is not duty, it's destiny.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, listen, listen.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about what God wants from you.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's about what God wants for you.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what he wants for you drives what he's asking for from you.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you and I forget about the fact that God wants something for us.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's on our side.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: The places he's calling us to go are the places that you and I want to go.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 29.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm gentle and lowly or humble in heart, and you will find, say it with me, rest for yourself.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you're looking for.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm looking for.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when God asks for something from me, it's because he wants something for me.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what he wants for me is exactly the thing that I should be responding to.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Second realization.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not only do we need to realize that destiny drives duty, we need to realize that this whole thing is gospel saturated.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at me.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just rest easy.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't start your spiritual work.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't your idea.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's very likely that when the whole thing was initiated, you were an enemy of God.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us were there when Jesus was crucified and we gave God permission to do it?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, Yeah, I think that's a great idea.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: You should go with that, God.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: I approve that plan.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Any hands?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see any.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the day that you surrendered your heart to follow Jesus Christ, God started a work in you.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not up to you to finish it.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not up to you to hijack it halfway through and take it in a new direction.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what I think.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just talking about me now.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I am so, so thankful that God knows that my spiritual development is so important.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a priority.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: He values it too much to trust me with it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all feel where I'm coming from?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: I can make a mess of just about anything.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's just me.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are perfect.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tolerating me.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: You feel where we're going with that?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: God knows this is too important to hand you the keys.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how this whole thing's gonna work.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be in charge of it and we're gonna respond to him.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul said.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you three verses from Galatians very quickly.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: We just read Philippians 1.6.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is Galatians 1.6.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm astonished at how many times I do that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: God called me in grace.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I finish it in my own power.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's not his plan.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's not his design.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm astonished that you've departed from the gospel and you go into a different gospel.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here's chapter 3 of Galatians.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, listen, you've been sold a bill of goods.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've been sold a bill of goods.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Who has bewitched you?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: You were begun in the spirit, it was a God work, but somewhere along the way somebody flipped a switch and now you're in charge?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I go, oh yeah, no, that's not right, is it?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I fell into that trap.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because we do.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the third realization.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: We need to realize that destiny drives duty, realize that this whole thing's gospel saturated.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third thing is to realize this assurance is not for everyone.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: This assurance is not for everyone.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul said.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, he had a specific message to a specific audience.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're reading scripture, it's very important for you to ask yourself, who was this originally written to?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's not for everybody.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul was sending a letter to a specific group of people that he had seen some very specific evidence in.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't giving this promise to everybody who had a pulse.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is important.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was saying, because this is why, before he says, the one who began a good work and you will complete it, he talks so much about their gospel participation and how thankful he is and all that he's seen in them.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get one without the other.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he says in Philippians 2.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always, what's the word?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Say it again.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Obeyed.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: See, I'm not trying to get you to not obey God.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get you to obey Him for the right reasons and with the right heart.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just as you have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence when I was with you, but now much more in my absence because I'm in prison and I can't be with you.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you take it seriously.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: The stakes are high.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have time or resources to waste.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and I love this, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you work it out because God's working in.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: You work it out because God's already at work in you.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: You have a responsibility here.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: You don't just lift your feet and go along with the current, and God's going to No, God's gonna call you to do some things.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna call you to take some next steps.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what they look like, but He's gonna do it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna call you to step, and it's gonna take some faith, and it may be a little bit painful.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: It may stretch you a little bit.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the question I'm asking is, can you trust the process?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can you trust the process of where God has you and where he's taken you?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even though you might not like it and it might not be fun?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read you this quote.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is from John Piper.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, he posted this on social media just a few weeks ago.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: He said, occasionally weep deeply over the life that you hoped would be.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Grieve the losses, then wash your face, trust God, and embrace the life you have.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Grieve, but then wash your face and just embrace where God has you.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've probably got some tension in your life, and it's not tension you asked for, and it may be tension that's no fun to you, but can you trust that God's at work in it?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can you trust that he's gonna deliver you through it?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a picture of my son Noah.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is when he was in kindergarten.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was his first day of kindergarten.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you see on his front there, he's wearing his lunchbox.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he has a strap, and he's got his lunchbox around his neck.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you the backstory to that.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Noah, uh there was something that happened the year before this.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: This was when he was in kindergarten, so this would have been pre-K.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So he was four years old.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he had never been in like in a classroom setting, as most four-year-olds hadn't.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he was really nervous about going to school.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was excited, but he was nervous and he wanted to be sure everything was just right.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so he was very concerned every day when he went, and I was the one that would take him every day.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he was very concerned every day that he had everything that he needed, and he was very concerned that he had, you know, his backpack and he had his lunch and he had his shoes tied and he had all this.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big deal.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when you know, it's your first kid, and he's four years old, and your heart's just there with him, and you want it to be a good experience.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: You want him to enjoy school, you want him to want to go back, but you also want him to have a good experience in his behavior.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: You want him to, you know, do what he's told and do his work and pay attention and all those things.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: So this was really important.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: A few days after he had started pre-K, which was before this, I took him to school as usual, dropped him off and went to work.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when it came time for lunch, I got a call from my wife.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Hey, the school just called me.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Noah didn't bring his lunch today.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And his whole class is going to eat lunch, and he doesn't have lunch, and he doesn't have any money, he doesn't have anything to eat.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my heart dropped.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: It just absolutely dropped because I thought to myself, that's not his responsibility.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's my responsibility.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the parent.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I just dropped the ball.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't imagine we're wanting to make sure that Noah fits in and that he has, you know, a good experience and his whole class is on the way to lunch and he doesn't have anything to eat.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is he gonna have to sit and not eat anything?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Miranda said, no.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: My wife said, no, run home, get his lunch, take it to him.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I jumped in the truck and I took off.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: I peeled out, ran home and got his lunchbox.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't speed up much.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I ran home and got his lunchbox and I went back and I gave it to him.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: So when I go to pull into the school, I'm thinking to myself, he's gonna be absolutely flipping out because he had been kind of nervous about this whole experience.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when I pulled in, I promise you, that's about what his face looked like.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: No sweat, no problem.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey Dad, thanks.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was standing there.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: He it's like he expected me to come around the corner at any minute and hand his lunch to him.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks, Dad, I'm gonna go to lunch now.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, and the Spirit of God said to me, Oh, to have child-like faith, my dad's gonna give me what I need when I need it.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's a good, good father.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And his heart, his biggest, greatest desire is for my fullest development.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna trust that because you're my dad, and because you love me, and because you're interested in completing the good work that you started, you love me too much to allow this good work to be hijacked by anybody, including me.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is normally where I would ask you, where do you want to be in a year, or where do you want to be in five years, or where do you want to be in ten years?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because those are great questions.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to think strategically.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't ask that here because it's wrong.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know where you want to be in a year or five years, and I don't know where you're gonna be, but I've got news for you.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where you are in five years might not be what you asked for.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the question I'm gonna ask you is wherever you wind up, next month or next year, can you trust that your Heavenly Father knows what he's doing and that he's up to something?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: And your only responsibility is to respond in faithful obedience, not because you owe him something or because it's because you love him so much and he's done so much for you.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: You want to respond in love and be obedient to who he's calling you to be and to take the steps that he's calling you to take.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Can you trust him in that?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you trust that he knows what he's doing?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: See, I don't know what God's will is for you.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to stand up here and tell you that it's God's will for you to be rich and to be happy and to get the great job and you get the promotion and everything works out, and somebody gives you a really nice house and you get the girl, and that's just how the whole thing.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I would love to tell you that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: What I can tell you is this God knows what he's doing.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: He knows what he's doing in your story.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: His greatest desire is for your fullest development.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna celebrate communion now.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: If the men will start coming forward, we're gonna celebrate communion.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna celebrate the good gospel work that God has given us the opportunity to be involved in.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because listen to me, look at me.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is really important.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a passion about the gospel, it's because you've experienced the gospel here first.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: So my prayer for you is not just that you would externally be a part of the gospel and participate in the gospel, but that you would be a part of the gospel here.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for this truth.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's powerful that you started a good work in us and you're gonna complete it.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, God, my prayer for us is that you'd just give us the faith to trust you, to trust that you know where you're taking us, you know where you're leading us.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to listen close with our ear towards heaven for what you're calling us to do and what are our next steps in following you.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that we would respond in faith and in love.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Give us the wisdom to know what you're calling us to do, and then the courage to do it, knowing that our development is your passion and it's your plan.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.